Final Fantasy: The Spirit Inside
by ntrophi
Summary: The whole movie gets a facelift and an even worse title and becomes altogether more gamey. There's magic! Summons! Mystery! Intrigue! Characters with personalities! It only took 6 years, but updated 2.08.09
1. Prologue

**Author note:** Anyone who's read this before may notice a couple of changes, most notably the removal of incessant blabbering at the start of each chapter. I've recently come back to this after a long time away and partook in a bit of editing. The edited chapters are what you see now. There's only one major change, but hopefully no-one will notice. Also, formatting is messed up; there aren't extra paragraph breaks where there should be some, but it reads fairly sensibly as is.

This basically plays with the plot of the movie, but branches off quite severely at the Fall of NY. Remember your suspension of disbelief, kids, this is an attempt to make a movie based on a game seem more like a game in written form.

Enjoy.

.

_Quickly, we have to_

Smoke floated across her face as she ran in the darkness, trying to escape from an enemy she couldn't even see. She didn't know – or care – where she was going; bumping and stumbling every few steps as she constantly looked behind her to try and catch a glimpse of her attacker. All she heard was her own desperate breaths mingled with the anguished cries of her pursuer. All she saw was

_stabilise_ _the shard before_

the darkness around her, shapes of buildings invisible in the inky black. Her energy nearly spent, she suddenly found herself in an open courtyard, the pale moonlight showing her that there was no escape. There were walls all around; tall, ominous shapes looming in the black. She turned around and around, eyes desperately searching for any way out. She found

_we_ _lose her. Come on_

none. The dark walls caged her in from all sides, stopping her from escaping what surely would be her death. Her mind raced frantically; where were the soldiers who were supposed to be protecting her? They had been right there and now there was nothing but the phantom behind her. Its squeal screeched out somewhere in her wake, prompting her to whirl round. This couldn't be happening; she wasn't

_Aki._ _You won't_

ready to face death yet. She could see the alpha now, the ashen moonlight dimly illuminating its barely opaque form. It neared her, knowing she was trapped, its arms raised in attack. She closed her eyes, knowing there was no way out now, waiting for the inevitable sensation of life sliding away from her. It happened sooner than she expected; the cold, icy tendrils piercing through her chest, ripping her very

_die_ _on me now!_

soul from her. The cold chilled her down to her very heart as the tendril tightened around her spirit; she could feel her own grip on it slipping and loosening, nausea crashing over her in wave after wave. She was losing her grip on life itself, slowly but ever so surely. This was it. This was where her life would end. Any moment

_The membrane should hold but_

now. . . The chill slowly began to recede, but her spirit remained firmly where it was. She frowned, forcing her eyes open to gaze up at the gaping maw of the phantom before her. He was fading, disappearing and it took her precious moments to realise why. The soldiers. They had returned just moments too late. Or had they? The phantom was growing weaker and weaker; he was dying and he didn't have the strength to take her

_we_ _need something more. . ._

with him. He squealed softly as he began to die, and as soon as he had faded into dust, she slid to the floor, her whole body numb. He may not have killed her outright, but he had left his mark on her.

'What do we need, doctor?'

Suddenly everything became more defined and she realised where she was; not trapped in the endless nightmare. She could still feel in inside her; the squirming reminder that it wasn't a dream. It had been real; the phantom attack, and she had the scars to prove it. But the pain had faded now, she noted as her eyes flickered open to show concerned scientists crowded around her. The shard was still inside her, she knew that much. It was still killing her as well, and for the moment, she couldn't escape from it. But it wasn't choking her anymore; sucking the life from her with every passing second. They had found a means of escape for her; a slim chance, but a chance all the same. Everyone still looked so concerned and worried as they crowded around her, but the oldest scientist had a glimmer of hope in his eye as he spoke.

'We need the eight spirits. . .'


	2. The Deep Eyes

Dr Aki Ross could smell acrid smoke somewhere to her left as she slowly walked through the deserted streets of old New York, but forced herself to ignore it and the memories that went with it; her mind and body focused on the small bleeping radar on her wrist. It was showing her the way to what she was seeking; what she had tried to retrieve once before. The phantoms had stopped her that time, and given her a reminder of the event. This time she wasn't afraid of them. They couldn't hurt her much more than they already had done.

So, she continued to stride carefully through the desolate streets, only pausing momentarily when the device on her wrist let out a sharp sound, telling her to go left. She eyed the foreboding alleyway with some unease, before gathering herself and heading down. She was suddenly aware of how utterly silent the city was – a far cry from the bustling centre of commerce and industry it had once been. Nothing lived here anymore; she almost doubted that anything could survive here in the midst of the life-sucking phantoms. There wasn't even the low rustle of wind whistling through the towering skyscrapers, and she herself remained as quiet as possible to try and avoid detection. Even so, she found herself becoming a little more than unnerved, especially when she discovered where the radar on her wrist was leading her.

The courtyard was still blocked in on all sides by those tall, sinister buildings that seemed to tower over everything; even blocking out the weak sunlight that managed to pass through the dense cloud above her. She averted her eyes reflexively from the spot where it had happened; where she had felt that sickening chill of a phantom touch. She had heard a thousand stories of the moment of infection, and nothing could have prepared her for the sheer terror it had induced in her; the fear it still induced. The soldiers who had been trying to protect her had arrived two seconds too late. A few seconds that could mean the difference between life and death. Her device still beeping – more furiously now – Aki slowly made her way towards the centre of the yard.

She saw it before her radar told her what it was; a small spray of green against an overpowering ocean of black. Her heart leapt as the device on her wrist told her that this was indeed what she was searching for, and she knelt down to get a closer look.

She was so absorbed in her work that she didn't hear the soft patter of rubble falling behind her.

A tiny weed; almost too weak to lift its leaves up towards the barely warm sun. That was all she was here for. If she hadn't known of its importance then she might have resented having to risk her life twice for it. Instead, she smiled softly and shook her head as she slowly began the time consuming task of containing the plant safely for transport back to the lab.

The alien scream of rage startled her, but she did not once turn away from her work. She had to get this done; the sample mattered more than she did. She had to secure it safely before she started worrying about herself. The plant was so fragile and weak that she feared she would kill it in her attempt to extract it from the hard ground it had managed to grow in. _Just deal with the spirit,_ she told herself sternly, another scream of anguish closer to her this time. _Then you can deal with the phantom,_

She quickly found – to her surprise – that she didn't need to deal with the phantom that was approaching her. As she worked she was aware of another sound – human this time; a battle cry of some sort – but she still would not take her eyes off the frail plant before her until her task was complete.

'This one's _angry_, captain!' a voice cried as gunfire filled the air. Aki snapped the final seal into place and instantly span around, holding the sample close to her as if trying to protect it further. Though the alpha phantom was invisible to the naked eye, she could make out its form through the eyepiece on her headset, and she was most surprised to see four soldiers surrounding the creature. Two were armed with guns and were holding the perimeter, firing off a shot when they could, while the other two attacked much closer than Aki would have liked to. One soldier held a long sword, its glowing bioetheric blade glinting in the faint sunlight. Aki had seen those blades in action before; they were deadly to phantoms and could easily be used to take out several attackers with one swing. The other soldier was punching the alien whenever he could, deftly avoiding the enraged tendril attacks of the phantom. Aki could just make out his bioetheric boots and gloves; made out of the same material as the first soldiers sword and just as dangerous to phantoms.

The sword swung fiercely, and the phantom – who had been avoiding the attacks smoothly up until now – let out a scream as its head left its body. The four soldiers paused to watch the alpha slump over and disintegrate before turning their attention to Aki.

'You're under arrest,' the sword toting soldier said, his voice almost indistinguishable through his helmet. 'This area is highly restricted,' Aki shook her head, ignoring the soldier as he walked towards her, a hand held out.

'My clearance allows me to enter the ruins,' she said simply, knowing that these soldiers wouldn't take that as a suitable answer. She'd run into patrolling groups far too many times; members of the military who thought they just _had_ to protect the defenceless little scientist. She had little time for them, just as they probably had little time for her. She was about to go onto say that she didn't need their help when a high-pitched scream shot through the air, causing all five humans to turn towards the source. Aki recognised the cry immediately as that of a gamma phantom; bigger and slower moving than a humanoid alpha, but twice as dangerous. Clearly, she wasn't the only one to realise the danger.

'Captain, we have to get out,' one of the soldiers – her voice distinctly female through the distortion caused by the helmets – urged. The leader nodded, pointing towards Aki.

'Agreed, but _you_ come with us,' Aki nodded before breaking into a run. The gamma was closer than she had thought, and its head was already visible through the far wall of the courtyard.

As she ran, suddenly it seemed as though phantoms were appearing from everywhere, screeching and stretching out for the souls they knew were there. The soldiers turned and fired whenever they could, but it seemed nothing could stop the tide of phantoms that were following.

'I hope you have an escape route planned,' Aki said to the nearest soldier as they backed out into a wide street. Out of the corner of her eye, Aki could just see huge, gaudy billboards lining the road. _Times Square,_ she thought.

'Transport, we need pickup _now_!' the lead soldier yelled into his radio between sword swipes. The four soldiers had wedged themselves between the never ending ocean of phantoms and Aki, unable to see if anything tried to attack from another angle. Aki decided to keep an eye out for them; the last thing she wanted was to be responsible for the loss of someone else's life. It would have been so much easier if they had just kept out of this. . .

She was glancing up the street, checking for any sudden attacks, when she saw something just out of the corner of her eye. She saw the phantom tentacle just in time as it passed out of the ground, painfully close to one of the gun wielding soldiers.

'Behind you,' she yelled, suddenly wishing that she had agreed to bring a gun with her. It was one thing taking on phantoms alone, but it was a whole other ordeal to stand back and watch others risk themselves. The soldier turned just in time, stepping back and avoiding the first sweep of the wispy limb. The phantom chose this moment to appear fully, pulling itself out of the ground and snarling angrily at the soldiers.

'Oh no you don't!' the soldier growled, unloading more than enough ammo into it, forcing it back down into the ground in a mixed scream of fury and agony.

'Transport!' the lead soldier yelled, listening to the static of his radio before muttering a few choice words in the direction of the ships pilot. There were phantoms closing in on all sides now, forcing the group of humans to back up more and more. Aki chanced a glance behind her and saw that they were being forced down a dark, dingy alleyway. If the transport didn't come now, it would never be able to get to them.

'Out of ammo, sir,' the female soldier muttered, her tone showing her sheer disgust for the weapon. How dare it become useless when she needed it most? The other gun soldier shook his head, taking a chance and hurling his spent gun into the crowd of phantoms that were approaching. It shot straight through the horde; none of them even paused to look.

'Did I ever mention why I hate this job?' he deadpanned.

'Neil?' the lead replied tersely, hacking at a phantom that had lunged too close.

'Sir?'

'Shut up,'

The wave crashed closer, and for the first time that mission, Aki began to feel worried. She didn't mind about herself – she was as good as dead anyway - but the sample mattered. Her arms tightened reflexively around the glass jar, as if to try and protect the fragile plant from anything that dared attack. She had to get it back to the base. If she lost it now, then no-one would be able to find it.

'This one's gonna be close, captain,' a soldier said. Aki couldn't see which one; she was almost there, enclosed in the darkness of the alleyway behind her. That was it; they were trapped. There was no way they could –

'Grab one,' the lead soldier ordered suddenly, prompting Aki to look up. To her delight – and surprise – there was a military ship hanging above them, tow ropes falling to rescue them from the pack of phantoms that seemed to sense that their prey were on the verge of escape. One of them leapt forwards, its tendrils intent on ripping at least one spirit from an unsuspecting person, but it met only thin air. Aki blew out a deep breath as she clung tightly to the tow rope. They were out of harm's way, and she finally had the sample. And before she knew it, she was sat down onboard the ship, being whisked back to the base with the plant safely in her arms.

She turned to the soldiers in time to see one of them remove his helmet, taking a gulp of the stale air inside the cabin before turning to her.

'You ok?' he asked, a twinge of kindly concern in his voice. Aki nodded silently, slightly wary of these soldiers. Now that she had time to study them, she could see they were Deep Eyes – that much she could tell by their unorthodox weapons. Regular troops could never hope to have access to anything other than the standard issue bioetheric guns; not exactly the perfect weapon to use against the invaders. Deep Eyes were elite soldiers, trained in skills the regulars could only dream of having. The lead soldier would be known as a _Knight_ in military slang, the name taken from the huge sword he used. To Aki's knowledge, there weren't many fully trained Knights in active service. She had known one a long time ago, and now to meet another one. . . Quite a coincidence.

The black soldier was known as a _Monk_; he would only use his fists and feet to fight. The name came from the ancient Chinese fighting monks that had existed thousands of years ago; someone in the military must have picked up on it and decided it was a fitting name for this kind of soldier. He had heavier, thicker armour than the others; an attempt to protect him from the considerably higher risks he faced when in battle. Monks had the highest mortality rate in the army; it wasn't often you found one who hadn't been terminally infected.

The other two soldiers were a bit more of a mystery to Aki. She had a basic knowledge of the classes of Deep Eyes, but it was hard to gauge what these two did. They both had so-called "Bioboom" guns, which had more of a punch to them than the standard issue ones given to normal troops, but from a distance she wouldn't have been able to figure out that they were Deep Eyes. The scrawny guy was probably a _Thief_ – military slang for a tech – judging by the various gizmos he had hanging from his belt. The female looked like a _Sniper_, specialising in guns. But Aki couldn't be exactly sure, and it didn't matter much to her anyway. They would take her home, tell her off and then probably never see her again.

The others were removing their helmets by now, stowing their weapons safely in the various compartments of the ship. Only the lead remained stood where he was – his helmet still covering his face – glaring at her.

'What were you doing out there?' he asked quietly. The other soldiers nodded.

'Yeah,' the skinny guy said. 'And what's that we're risking our butts for?' He was pointing at the plant in Aki's arms which she drew closer to herself.

'It's a plant,' she said simply, hoping that stating the obvious would make them leave her alone. The female soldier snorted.

'Are you sure? It looks a little weedy to me,' The black soldier smirked.

'Like someone we know, eh Neil?' The smaller soldier pouted, waving a hand in gesture.

'That's no fair, sarge. And besides, aren't we missing the point here?' The other soldier shrugged.

'It's a plant and a scientist with a death wish. What did you expect?'

'Ryan. . .' That was the lead, who was still staring at Aki. 'We're not bothered about the plant,'

'So what brought you to old NY?' the female asked. Aki shrugged.

'The plant,' The soldier gave a growl of exasperation, turning to frown at the lead.

'Are you _sure_ she's a scientist, sir?' The lead nodded.

'Yeah, Jane. I know she is,' Aki let her eyes narrow slightly. There was something in the way he said that; a familiar tone to his voice. A thought hit her. _It can't be,_ she thought, watching as he started to unbuckle the clasps that held his helmet together. She hadn't noticed it until now, but she knew that voice, even though she had tried so hard to forget it.

'Gray?' she asked tentatively, hoping she was wrong. Better to look silly in front of some strangers than be confronted with the past. He finally removed his helmet and nodded slowly, sighing. There was the face she knew so well.

'Glad you noticed, Aki,' he said with a ghost of a smile. 'Though it took you long enough,' Aki remained quiet, an uncomfortable silence settling in the small cabin. She could tell the three soldiers were itching to ask what was going on, but some degree of discipline made them go about their work as if nothing was happening around them. _It's been so long,_ Aki thought quietly. _And still I'm not ready to talk to him again. . ._

'I have to tend to the sample,' she said tonelessly, turning away from them. She didn't turn back until they landed, absorbing herself in checking the plant again and again. But if she had, she would have seen Gray watching her sadly.


	3. An Infestation

It didn't take long for the ship to reach the safety of the nearest barrier city; New York. The huge, orange barriers had been erected years ago around as many viable cities as possible because nothing else could protect the masses from the phantoms. Everyone depended on the shimmering walls of light; they depended on them too much in fact. The generators that powered the barriers were delicate and temperamental at best and fallen barriers were not uncommon. Still, the people trusted the barriers; living like caged animals within the cities while the world was ravaged by an unseen enemy. Most of the population didn't realise just how dead the world outside the cities was. If nothing was done, soon there would be no world left to fight for.

The group walked to the scanning post, Aki in silence and the Deep Eyes having some joking argument about the safety of the scanners.

'It can't be good for us, sir,' Neil was saying as he halted just outside the sterile room. 'I mean, who knows what it does to you? I've got no real desire to have my brain melted to mush all because they wanted to check for infections,' It was a generally accepted fact that everyone hated being scanned. It was risky and unpleasant, but it was one of those things that _had_ to be done. Before the introduction of scanning, numerous soldiers and scientists had returned to the cities with an unknown infection. If an infection wasn't treated in time, it usually resulted in not only the death of the victim, but also a spread of the phantom particles to anyone in the vicinity. Whole sections of cities had to be quarantined – usually the military sections – which led to panic amongst the civilians. Scanning helped avoid that panic, but it didn't mean the soldiers had to like it.

'For once,' Jane started. 'I agree with him,' Neil feigned shock.

'Wow. There really _is_ a first time for everything,' He grinned impishly. 'Wanna see if we agree on anything else?' Jane scowled down at him for a moment.

'Get away from me,'

'Alright, people,' Gray said before things got out of hand. 'Everyone is scanned, alright. No amount of complaints is gonna get you out of it,' He turned to Aki, acknowledging her presence for the first time since they had landed. 'Even you,' Aki shook her head slightly, even as the other soldiers groaned.

'But, sir. . .'

'No buts,' Gray stated firmly. 'You first, Ryan,' Ryan was always the first to be scanned, as he was always more at risk. Fighting with hand and foot seemed near suicidal to most soldiers, but it was more effective than using the guns issued to normal troops. The gloves and boots he was equipped with were generally more destructive to phantoms than anything else. If you got enough force behind your kick or punch, then you could easily take down an alpha with one hit. Plus, Monks were given different armour than the other soldiers. It was currently experimental – just out of the testing phase – but was at least ten times better at protecting against phantoms. It gave some comfort, but Ryan couldn't help but feel uneasy as he stepped into the small scanning chamber. He'd had a few close calls in his time, and he always worried that this time. . .

'You're clear, sergeant,' the technician manning the station said suddenly. 'Next,' Ryan blew out a considerable sigh of relief and stepped out.

'You know I'm allowed to bypass this,' Aki said, surreptitiously heading for the security door. Gray shot her a ghost of a smile as he grabbed her wrist, shaking his head as if he were telling off a small child.

'Not today. You're not leaving here until you get scanned,' he warned, before stepping in himself. He never liked the scanners, but he accepted that they were essential. He was a pretty high risk case, fighting the phantoms more closely than your normal soldier, but he never let it worry him. If he was infected, then so be it. If not, then congratulations; he'd lived to fight another day. There was no point worrying.

'All clear, captain. Next,' Only Jane and Aki were now waiting to be scanned, the scientist stepping back to allow the soldier through first.

'After you,' Aki said, earning a suspicious frown from Jane.

'If you insist,' she muttered, stepping in.

'Careful with that glare, Jane,' Neil called, pretending to wince as Jane turned her scowl on him. 'You might break something,'

'And if we're lucky, it'll be you,' Jane shot back, smiling sarcastically as she waited patiently for the all clear.

It didn't come. A long time passed; a very long time. Aki was starting to hope that something had gone wrong with the machine, but then a loud siren sounded through the small room. Her heart sank; she knew what that sound meant.

'What's wrong?' Gray asked, his tone betraying his worry. He'd been in the military long enough to know what the siren meant, but he had to make sure.

'It's an infestation,' the tech exclaimed, pushing various buttons on the panel before him. Akis eyes drifted around the room. This was something she could deal with; something she had dealt with a million times before. She had to help. If Jane was left to be treated in the wards, she'd be dead within a week. She spied exactly what she was looking for in an adjoining room.

'How long do we have?' she asked, already tapping her code into the security door.

'Three minutes, give or take,' The tech paused for a second, watching Aki head to the operating table in the next room. 'W-What are you doing?' Aki looked at him as if he had grown another head.

'I'm going to save her,' The tech opened his mouth to complain, but seeing the stern faces of the soldiers he decided it wouldn't be such a good idea. Alright, so letting this operation go on without proper consent was also a bad idea, but at least the consequences of that didn't lead to him getting beaten up by a group of angry soldiers.

'Ah, alright,' he muttered quietly. 'Dispensing treatment shield,' A treatment shield knocked out the patient, stopping the phantom particles from properly interacting with their nervous system. It only halted the infestation for a few minutes, but those few minutes could be essential for survival. The needle sank into Jane's neck and she was unconscious before she had a chance to even register the injection. Realising what Aki was doing, Gray signalled for Ryan to help him and together they carried her over to the operating table.

'There's not enough time,' the tech said, strain cracking his voice. He couldn't let this go without a fight, even if he had no chance of winning. He was under strict orders to direct all infestations to the wards on the other side of the base. Suddenly he was stuck with an operation going on far too close for comfort. Aki shook her head, the machine already searching out the alien particles in Jane's body. She had performed these operations so many times she could do them backwards whilst asleep. And she couldn't just stand back and let the soldier die.

The machine quickly found the particles, and instantly Aki was cutting away delicately with the bioetheric laser. The lasers were slightly harmful to human tissue - especially when directed at vital organs or when powered up in order to reach the deepest parts of the body – but the slight damage done was preferable to a slow and painful death from the infection. In an untrained hand, the lasers could be deadly to the patient, but Aki knew what she was doing. Already the fragment was tiny, barely registering on the machine. Just a few more cuts and then she would have –

'Where'd it go?' Neil asked suddenly, noticing that the shard had wriggled out of sight. Aki cursed under her breath, trying to ignore the frantic question. This didn't happen often to her; she was usually fast enough to get rid of the fragments before they could burrow deeper into the human host. Going deeper meant more danger for Jane and less chance of success, and they all knew it.

'Thirty seconds,' the tech said tensely, just about managing to hold the desperation from tainting his voice. If this fragment wasn't stopped soon, it would infect all of them. 'It's not going to - '

'It'll work,' Aki muttered, hands moving quickly to locate the particle. It would work; she couldn't let it fail. If she was lucky, the particle wouldn't have got too far and she wouldn't hurt Jane too much. But from the writhing of the unconscious soldier, Aki could tell the shard had travelled more deeply than she hoped. There was no going back now.

'Where is it?' Gray demanded, but Aki didn't hear him. She had found the fragment now, and she was all too aware that time was not a luxury she had now. Four, three, only two cuts to go. . .

'Five seconds,' the tech yelled. Great, second week on the job and he was going to get killed by some renegade scientist with a hero complex. Aki didn't listen; her mind fixed on making that final cut.

The particle disintegrated without a fight, fading into nothing as Aki calmly eyed the timer. It had stopped at two seconds.

'You were saying?' she asked the tech coolly, resisting the urge to smile. The tech let out a very relieved breath, leaning back in his seat as though exhausted. Aki shook her head, turning back just in time to see Jane stir. Treatment shields didn't last that long; they were only supposed to be used for quick operations. Sometimes they didn't work for long enough and the patient would wake up to find a bioetheric laser pointed at their chest. Panic would ensue, and the result was never pretty.

'Aah. . .' Jane mumbled, putting a hand to her head. Neil and Ryan were already helping her to sit up.

'You get all the lucky breaks, don't you?' Neil joked, earning a half-hearted glare from Ryan.

'You never learn, huh?' he said warningly.

'If I did, life wouldn't be as fun,' Gray shook his head, smiling at his squad. He would go and check on Jane in a minute, but first. . .

'Thanks, Aki,' he started, smiling as warmly as he could manage at her.

'Just doing my job,' she replied, not returning the smile.

'I was wo - ' He didn't get much further with that sentence as something behind him caught Akis attention. She shot him a grin that didn't quite reach her eyes and moved off. Gray watched her go, recognising the older scientist who was stood at the entrance, waiting for her. _So she still works with Sid,_ he thought, not realising that his troops were watching him. Even when they were in mortal danger, they still seemed to worry more about him than themselves. _Some things never change,_

'You alright, captain?' Ryan's voice broke through his train of thought, making him blink and turn, trying to hold his surprise.

'I'm fine,' he replied, knowing full well they didn't believe him. He couldn't blame them; he wouldn't believe him either. 'But enough about me,' He had to change the subject. Obviously things with Aki were nowhere near easy to talk about. 'We should go get you checked out, Jane. Let's see what that phantom did to you,'

An hour later, Aki was stood watching in anticipation as Dr Sid examined the spirit wave of the plant she had collected from the old city. It had taken her months to find this small weed, and now she was filled with a strange sort of dread. What if it wasn't what they were looking for? What if her sacrifice had been in vain? She watched his face intently, knowing that she would see the result in his expression before he said a word. His creased frown suddenly turned into a wide smile, and she felt her heart lift with relief.

'Excellent, Aki,' he said, not bothering to hide the pride in his voice. 'It's a perfect match,' Aki allowed herself to smile ever so slightly, moving to sit down on the seat next to him.

'I knew I'd get it eventually,' she joked, eyeing the display on the monitor before them. 'The third spirit. . .' Sid nodded, his eyes still shining – as if he couldn't believe it himself.

'Yes. Now we have something to show the council if they should pry into what we've been doing,' Aki frowned, turning to face Sid. It was true that the Spirit Project was moving along without any kind of permission from the council. She doubted they even knew it was going on. But surely that shouldn't matter. What mattered was that they were doing something to help get rid of the phantoms. Of course, the politics of it never worked like that; it was never that simple.

'They won't. And if they do, then they should be glad. At least we're doing something to try and help the planet,' Sid shrugged, the smile disappearing to be replaced by a slight frown.

'Maybe,' he mused. 'But you know how much the military influences them. And you know exactly what the military thinks of us,' Aki shook her head, suppressing a small sigh of anger. The military were definitely not her favourite people right now.

'They don't seem to remember that you're the one responsible for the barriers that keep them safe, for the weapons that keep them alive. They even seem to have forgotten that without your theories, that precious cannon they adore so much would be nothing more than a dream,' Sid chuckled, looking up calmly at her.

'Calm down, Aki. We're unappreciated - ' Aki couldn't help but notice that he said _we_ instead of _I_. He was always doing that; talking about his research as if someone else was responsible for it. She had always admired his lack of ego. ' – But we can live with that. Right now, we have to worry about finding the other spirits and keeping this project alive,' Aki opened her mouth to argue that it shouldn't be so hard to keep the project going, if the council would just see some sense, but he cut her off by shaking his head.

'You know that certain members of the military – ' He didn't need to say who; she knew well enough. ' – would love to shut us down. And this would be enough; more than enough, and you know it. So be calm,' The older scientist turned back to gaze at the spirit reading on the screen before him. 'We'll just keep on working and hope that we can finish everything before they find out,' Aki sighed, but nodded slowly. Sid was right; he always was. It used to frustrate her no end, but these days it was comforting to have someone like him around.

'Alright,' she said, her tone admitting defeat. 'I'll be quiet. But if they – '

'It doesn't matter. We'll just concentrate on getting the next spirit, and then the next. Until we have all eight, we won't worry about anything else, alright?' Aki nodded again. In the face of his unerring logic, her irrational approach seemed. . . well, irrational.

'Yes, Sid,' That was what they would do; work in silence and stealth. They would save the world, and no-one would realise it until the phantoms had been destroyed.


	4. The Council

Aki found herself groaning quietly in irritation as she half-listened to the argument from the military bench. Yet again she had come here in the deluded hope that they would see some sense, and yet again the conversation had turned to exactly the same thing – Zeus.

The Zeus cannon was the brainchild of some long forgotten general and had been in construction longer than Aki had known Sid. They – and the rest of the science division – were always hoping that it would never be completed; indeed most of the reports that came in about it were always complaining about the lack of resources, or the fact that the hardware never matched up. It had been a constant building site for nearly ten years now and Aki found it amazing that it could support human life at all. It was over-funded, and run in the worst possible fashion ever. Yet, the military still insisted it was the only source of hope in the fight against the invaders. Aki tended to disagree, and constantly hoped that the station would remain in construction for evermore. However, last month, news had filtered through that the cannon had finally been completed and that it was ready for firing. Aki had learnt a lot about Zeus in the last month, in preparation for this meeting. It was situated in a low orbit around the planet, with the ability to move over any part of the earth's surface within hours. The cannon itself was a fusion of bioetheric and nuclear technology and was strong enough to blast through the solid mantle of the planet and reach the magma below. The military intended to use it on the Leonid meteor, the undisputed source of all phantom activity. It would be like destroying the main headquarters of an enemy, or so they hoped. But the council were wary, and fully conscious to the fact that the cannon was incredibly dangerous. A test firing that had taken place six weeks ago had resulted in a huge crater that scarred the desolate landscape around it. It had almost ended up creating a new volcano of sorts, but the techs had realised that to fire again was foolish. The council had taken this information on board and were denying permission for firing on the Leonid meteor; something that riled the military to no end. They called these meetings every month to review the position on Zeus, and Aki was here with Sid now to make sure that the cannon was not fired.

Of course, an argument like this was always difficult when you had an opponent like General Hein.

Hein was the current head of the military and as such had jurisdiction of Zeus. From what Aki understood, he had a bit of an obsession about it, choosing to devote more of his time to the cannon than to his troops. He had been a supporter of it for a long time, ever since it had been approved, and the more power he got hold of, the harder it was to dissuade the council against Zeus' use. Hein was young – much too young in Aki's opinion – for a general, but he had more than enough brains to make up for his lack of experience. Sid had always said that he would have made an excellent scientist, if he had only learned how to open his mind to other possibilities. There was little hope of that happening though; the general was well rooted in his support for Zeus, and in his mistrust of the science division. Aki had never been sure where this lack of faith stemmed from, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know. She would never approach him about it; he was much too cold and seemingly uncaring about everything. The only time she had ever spoken to him was inside this chamber when arguing a point. She was quite happy to keep the level of contact with him as low as possible.

'Members of the council,' Hein started, gesturing for his second to sit and let him deal with this. Aki decided to let Sid do all the talking today; she hated arguing with Hein. 'Can someone tell me why Zeus was completed a month ago, and still has not been used?' His request was fine enough, but his tone was somewhere between armed terrorist and petulant child. One of the council members – Councillor Drake – shook his head.

'General Hein, calm down,' They were always reprimanding him for losing his grip on his temper. Aki would have thought that a short fuse wasn't a great quality for a leader of the army to have, which made Hein's ascent to general all the more perplexing. 'As you know, this council voted a month ago to postpone the firing of Zeus until a later date. We are here now to review that decision,' Hein opened his mouth; to try and get the first word in. That was another habit of his, and only recently had the council started to notice. Aki had to hand it to him; he was great at talking the general people around to his point of view, no matter how twisted it was. On a matter this important though, the council didn't want him getting out of hand, which was why Drake continued speaking before Hein could start. The general knew better than to interrupt a councillor who had the floor.

'First,' Drake started, stressing the word. 'I'd like to ask Dr Sid, head of the bioetheric division, to speak,' The councillor shot a warning glance at Hein, prompting the soldier to scowl slightly, but sit down grudgingly. Sid stood up, clearing his throat.

'Thank you,' he began. Aki took this moment to lean back in her seat and watch Hein for a moment. It was always interesting to watch him come up with various expressions of disgust as anyone else dared voice their opinion. Plus, she was intrigued by the man; she always had been. He wasn't much older than her, and yet he had such a position of power and the look of someone who had seen far too much in their lifetime. Somewhere deep down, she wanted to know. Why? And how? He was almost like a puzzle, waiting to be solved, though most puzzles didn't scowl ardently back at you. Watching him for a few minutes did nothing to help her impression of him, especially when he turned and glared fiercely at her. Aki just glared back, vaguely hearing Sid going onto explain just why a bombardment with Zeus would be futile; they had done their homework on this one. They had to in order to talk the council out of using it. Hein didn't scare her, or not as much as he probably hoped to. Intriguing he might be, but really he was just another soldier, unwilling to compromise like all the others. She shook her head, turning away to fix her attention more fully on Sid's presentation. And even as she did, she got the slightly disturbing impression that Hein was watching her.

' – And in some cases, this leads to death,' Sid finished. He had just been explaining the potential problems associated with using bioetheric lasers on patients, and was comparing it with the risk posed by Zeus. Aki felt her brow furrow ever so slightly. That was straying into dangerous territory; the council didn't like thinking of the planet as a living thing.

'So what are you saying, doctor?' Councilwoman Hee asked, her eyes narrowing. Aki knew that Hee was on their side – she was far too intelligent to put her trust in the cannon and Hein – but she always liked to know everything about a situation before making some kind of important decision.

'If we use Zeus on the Leonid meteor, then the phantoms on the outside will indeed be destroyed. However – ' he added hastily before Hein could get a word in edgeways. 'Attempting to destroy the phantoms in this way could have disastrous consequences. If the power of the cannon were increased to reach the phantoms below ground, then it could lead to an injury in the earth itself,' Aki felt her blood run cold. He wasn't. . . If she had been watching Hein, she would have noticed a flicker of revulsion cross his face. In fact, it almost passed her own. What was Sid doing?

'You mean the spirit of the earth, don't you?' Hee asked, the suspicion evident in her voice. 'The Gaia,' Sid took in a deep breath that only Aki could detect before letting himself nod.

'Yes. The Gaia,'

Immediately, conversation rippled around the auditorium, bringing some disorder that took minutes to subside. Aki glanced up at Sid, her expression tense. He was doing exactly what they had agreed not to do. The Gaia theory was unproven and mocked by most people outside the scientific community, but it was crucial to the Spirit project. If the council started exploring down this path, then would they stumble across the project? Sid saw her expression and nodded reassuringly.

'It's fine. Just listen and don't say a word,' She nodded swiftly, sitting back in her seat and frowning slightly. Amidst the confusion, Hein had decided that now was the time to make his voice heard. He _detested_ the Gaia theory with all his heart, ridiculing it whenever he could. The main problem was that he understood it, or most of it anyway, and used this knowledge to expose what he thought were flaws in the theory. Last time Gaia had come up in a meeting, Aki had felt the distinct urge to strangle Hein, such was his way of infuriating her. Somehow, she had a feeling that today would be the same.

'Please,' Hein started, his tone overly mocking. 'I'm sure the council has no time for myths like this so-called _theory_,' He paused, as if thinking. 'What was it again? "Every living thing, including the earth, has a spirit. Whenever the spirit is hurt, the living thing suffers." Is that about right, doctor?' Sid nodded silently; he had no other answer to Hein's question.

'Ah. So, if I point a gun at the ground and fire, I'm not just making a hole in the ground. I'm _hurting_ the _planet_,' His expression hardened into a derisive scowl. 'No offence, doctor – ' Both Aki and Sid knew that was a blatant lie. ' – But we don't have time for your little fairy tales,' Sid shook his head firmly and stood his ground.

'It's not a fairy tale. It is true,' Hein sneered.

'Perhaps in your labs. But out here in the real world, we have to use real solutions, not flights of fancy,'

'I have another solution,' Sid stated simply. 'One that will not harm the Gaia, but will still rid us of the phantoms,' Aki shot a smirk at Hein, who was now glaring at the older scientist. Sid had regained the floor without resorting to insults or sneers, and he had the councillors captivated as well.

'Another solution?' Hee asked; partly suspicious, partly curious. 'By all means, tell us,' Sid nodded half-gratefully. He was glad to have Hein shut up for a second so he could get a word in edgeways.

'As we all know - ' he started as a holographic picture appeared in the middle of the room. Aki raised an eyebrow for a moment, eyeing her mentor incredulously. He had _planned_ this. Well, either that or he was incredibly prepared for any eventuality. ' - that the phantoms display a distinct energy pattern. And it is a well-documented fact - ' he added, stressing the word _fact_ with a sideways glance at Hein. ' – that two opposing energy waves, when placed one over the other, will cancel each other out,' Aki could sense that one of the two military representatives were just itching to butt in and give some sneering remark about all of this, but they didn't have a chance as Sid continued quickly.

'We are building such an opposing wave at the moment, though it is in the early stages of development. It may take some time before it is finished, but when it is – '

'Then what?' Hein interrupted, shaking his head. 'The phantoms will just disappear?' Sid shrugged.

'We're not sure. But in theory, yes,' Hein couldn't stop the sneer of utter disdain from fixing itself on his face.

'In _theory._ Please. I'm sure this council realises that gathering plants and animals to fight the phantoms is utter _nonsense_,' It was as if the fact that there was someone on the planet who didn't put all their faith in Zeus was hard for him to take. 'Zeus is a proven, effective weapon. We know it _will_ kill phantoms. Can we afford to risk wasting time on something that is just a theory at the moment?' He stopped where he was, gesturing up at the hologram of the two waves cancelling each other out, and shook his head once more.

'You all know that Zeus is the answer. Don't tell me that you're willing to postpone its firing for yet another month all because some theory appears out of the blue. There isn't even any evidence that this – ' Aki couldn't let it go on any longer. All her working life she had toiled towards finding an answer to the problem of the phantoms. Now she and Sid had something; something that could actually work and give the earth its freedom back. She was not about to let all that hard work count for nothing purely because some stuck up soldier didn't want to admit he was wrong.

'There is evidence,' she said suddenly, standing up and trying not to glare too hard at Hein. Damn him for making her speak like this when she had promised herself that she would stay quiet. Damn him for being so single-minded. 'Our partially completed wave has stopped phantom particles from spreading through a terminally infected patient,' Drake widened his eyes in surprise. Terminally infected patients usually didn't survive for a week after they'd been contaminated. No-one had ever imagined that there could be something to cure the infestation. The death toll each week would reduce greatly if they could cure terminal infections.

'You mean to say you've _cured_ an infected patient, doctor Ross?' Aki shook her head slightly, sighing.

'Not cured. The wave is only partial and so is the cure. But we've kept the patient alive. It's been two months now and the particles have not spread. The patient is still alive,' As if he could sense the councils attention moving away from him, Hein chose this moment to pound a gloved fist onto the table before him. He hadn't spent all this time championing Zeus to have Sid's favourite lab hand stop him now.

'Where is the _proof_?' he thundered. Aki looked over at him calmly – too calmly – before glancing down at Sid. She could see the disapproval in his eyes, but he knew – as she did – that this had to be done. She couldn't hide behind him anymore; she had to free the secret that she'd been guarding all this time. It was for the good of the world. Her reputation didn't matter as long as the project didn't suffer.

'Here,' she said simply, returning her gaze to Hein. She wanted to see the look on his face change as she reached for the tight metal chest-plate that kept her secret safe. A flick of a button later and a hologram of the phantom particles within her was projected into the middle of the room, engulfing the previous picture that had been there. Everyone gasped audibly, whether in horror or shock; even the supposedly unflappable general. He stared at the image uneasily for a long moment before giving her a look she couldn't quite read. It was curious, almost, but with an undercurrent of something she didn't like. But what did she care. They all knew now. She had no secrets to hide now; he couldn't do anything to hurt her.

She flicked the hologram off and sat down again, silently daring Hein to challenge her. But he didn't. He whispered something to his companion and sat down himself, not trying to make eye contact with her. He was thinking, and if there was one thing Aki didn't like, it was general Hein with an idea.

'You might have bought us some time,' Sid whispered as the clamour around them continued. This would give the council something to talk about for at least another year. 'But you didn't need to. I have everything under control,' Aki didn't hear that last part. Her gaze had been drifting through the chattering crowd, and suddenly she had seen Gray sat there, watching her in silence.


	5. The White Mage

'Good news, Aki,' Sid was saying as Aki walked into the lab, trying not to look as annoyed as she felt. It wasn't even a full day since she had revealed her infection to the council, yet everywhere she went she was stared at and avoided like she was some kind of circus freak. At least here they all knew about it; she could _pretend_ to be normal for a while.

'Really?' she said mildly, sitting down beside him and dropping her head into her hands. She was tired; she hadn't slept much last night, mostly because she was worrying about what Gray thought of her now. _And I told myself I didn't care what he thought anymore,_ she thought, unable to see Sid smiling down at her. _I guess old habits really do die hard,_

'Indeed. Not only did the council decide to put off firing Zeus for another month – ' Aki had left before the decision had been made, unwilling to stick around and have every single pair of eyes in the auditorium gawking at her. Strangely enough, Hein had left just before her; as if he realised that his argument had been in vain. Aki had always figured he would be the kind of person who took rejection badly. ' – but we've also found the fourth spirit,' Aki's head came up as she gaped at him.

'Already?' she asked, somewhat incredulously. Well, it had taken them months to find the third spirit, and even longer to obtain it. She had expected to have to sit around the base for at least another few weeks before Sid got a pinpoint on the next spirit, but now? It had only been two days since she had taken the frail plant from the ruins of New York. _He's getting more efficient,_ she thought. 'Where is it?' Sid's smile faded just a touch.

'You won't like it,' Aki shrugged.

'Unless it's in the council chamber, I assure you it'll be better than hanging around here,'

'Touche,' Aki frowned at him for a moment. Either she was mistaken, or Sid was avoiding the subject at hand.

'So where is it?' Sid let out a small sigh.

'Tucson,' he said simply, provoking an involuntary shudder from Aki. Alright, so maybe it _wouldn't_ be better than hanging around the base. The Tucson wasteland was famous for one thing; being the site of the greatest massacre of human soldiers in history. Only fallen barrier cities had greater death tolls. The battle there had been planned so carefully beforehand; all the top ranking soldiers and tactics specialists had worked for nearly a year to try and get their plan perfect. But three hours in, and it was clear – even to the most optimistic of soldiers – that no amount of planning could have won this battle. It was supposed to be the turning point of the war; essentially it was a mass nest clearing operation. Phantoms had a tendency to gather around certain places and form nests; the Leonid meteor was one such place, and Tucson was another. The military had decided that if the army could clear the Tucson nests without too many casualties, then it wouldn't be too great a step up to try and attack the meteor head on. So they had gathered the largest army ever seen, and taken them to the wastelands. The once peaceful plain had been turned into a bloodbath, and the military had lost nearly half of its great army. As a result of this, construction on Zeus had been stepped up. The military was no longer willing to risk its soldiers just to gain a few yards in battle.

Though the phantom density around Tucson had decreased steadily in the years following the battle, but the plain was still heavily restricted. _Mind you, so is old New York,_ Aki thought anxiously. It wouldn't be much trouble getting in. It was getting out that would be the problem.

'Great,' she said with all the enthusiasm she could muster – none. Sid chuckled hollowly, trying to cheer her up.

'You shouldn't worry, Aki. The council has decided to give us a little help on this one. You had quite an effect on them,' Aki smiled ever so slightly, but no amount of effort on Sid's part could shift that horribly uneasy feeling in her stomach. She was going to the largest mass graveyard on earth. Not exactly a reason for celebration.

'You mean they'll send someone else to get the spirit?' she asked hopefully, prompting Sid to shake his head.

'Not exactly, but you won't be alone. They've decided to give you a bodyguard of sorts, someone who'll look out for you while you search for the sample,'

'Bodyguard?' Aki repeated, furrowing her brow slightly. 'Well, I guess it's better than nothing. Do we know who?' Sid smiled impishly; an expression that sent shivers down Aki's spine.

'You might be familiar with him. Captain Edwards,' Aki felt her jaw drop again.

'Gray?' she exclaimed, unable to hide the horror that tinged her voice. Sid laughed.

'Yes, Gray. He was the first to volunteer, I believe,' He went on talking, but Aki didn't hear. _Gray volunteered to be my bodyguard. . . Why is he doing this! Doesn't he realise that I don't want to talk to him? Doesn't he realise that it hurts?_ 'The Deep Eyes will be going with you as well, but just as backup,' Sid said, his voice cutting through her thought. 'But until we get the eighth spirit, captain Edwards will be with you all the time,'

'I assume you didn't discourage him,' Aki said coldly. She didn't need this; Gray around her all the time. No doubt he would try to discuss a past that she had long tried to forget.

'Why should I?' Sid asked innocently. 'He's a good soldier; I can't think of anyone better to protect you,' Aki responded by sighing in annoyance, turning her gaze to stare at the wall. 'Come now, Aki,' Sid scolded softly. 'Surely it can't be that bad?' Aki shot him a brief scowl.

'I bet it can. . .'

General Hein watched in silence from the edge of the hangar as the scientist and her entourage prepped a ship for their mission. He had always had an uneasy feeling about her; there was something about the way she spoke and behaved in the council meetings that had always un-nerved him slightly. Now the reason for his mistrust had been made apparent. She was infected by a phantom – by the enemy – and still she was allowed to roam free and put elite soldiers in unnecessary danger. Didn't the council see that she was a threat? No-one knew what happened to a victim's mind when they were infected; what if she was working with the enemy? What if this "Spirit project" was a means of strengthening the invaders, not stopping them? No-one would see or do anything until it was too late. Hein could not let that happen.

It all hinged on her; he could see that clearly now. Be rid of her, and the scientists would collapse, making the road free for Zeus to be put to use. _But how to stop her?_ How to prove to the council that she was under the influence of the alien within her? How to prove that she was no longer in control?

'Major,' Hein started quietly, a flash of inspiration hitting him. He didn't need to prove it; the good doctor could do that herself. 'Send some of our men with them. I want to keep a close eye on doctor Ross,' Behind him, major Elliot nodded, though a little uneasily. The science division had been cleared by the council itself; what was Hein trying to achieve by interfering? But what could he do? Hein was in charge after all. He sighed quietly and turned to leave. Hein didn't hear him go; his attention still fixed on the woman as she argued with one of the Deep Eyes. There was something else beneath her calm exterior, something she was trying to hide. He was determined to find out what, and expose her as the traitor she was.

Aki let out an exasperated growl as she stepped into the military ship. It had been just one of _those_ days so far. First of all she had found out that, although the army was willing to help her in her endeavour, they had taken her own ship from the ruins of New York and impounded it; meaning she couldn't get it back. Next she had been part of a rather stupid argument with Neil about what kind of equipment she needed to take to Tucson, and now she had the feeling that the soldier liked her even less than he had liked her before. And now, to top it all off, one of the techs had informed her that Hein had decided to send along some bodyguards of his own. _How can this day get any worse?_ she thought, throwing herself into one of the seats and angrily picking at a piece of machinery that had inconveniently chosen this moment to break.

'Aki? You in here?'

She looked for a way out, but found none that wouldn't involve her climbing ungraciously out of a window, and so was forced to sit there as Gray walked onto the ship; that painfully familiar smile on his face.

'Yes,' she sighed, casting the tool aside. Well, he had her trapped; she couldn't run away this time. 'I'm here,' He walked towards her, the grin brightening considerably.

'I've been trying to catch you alone all day,' he confessed. 'But you're a very hard lady to get hold of,' Aki suddenly noticed that he was holding his right arm close to him, and that the grin wasn't quite as carefree as she'd first imagined.

'Are you alright?' she asked, half-suspiciously. Gray shrugged, waving his left hand.

'Just a scratch, I'll be fine,' Aki frowned at him, standing up and moving to face him.

'Show me,' she demanded, prompting him to shake his head slightly.

'Aki, it's al – '

'Show me, Gray,' she said again, pulling at his right hand. He relented this time, unfurling his right fist to show a deep, jagged cut across his palm. It wasn't much; messy more than anything, but Aki knew he'd find it hard to even hold his weapon, let alone swing with any great force. She looked up at him sternly, causing him to smile sheepishly at her.

'Well, I was just gonna – '

'Leave it until it got infected?' Aki finished, sitting him down and holding his injured hand in one of hers. 'How did you manage it anyway?' Gray shrugged again, quietly curious as to what Aki was doing. He had expected her to send him off to the medics, not make him sit down and have her snarl at him. _At least I've got her attention now,_

'Lifting a crate. Those metal ones have sharp edges,' Aki nodded absent-mindedly, staring intently at his wound with her right palm a few inches above his. Gray watched her, feeling an eyebrow quirk slightly as a heavy silence fell on them. He knew she might have changed in the few months since he saw her last, but he was sure she couldn't have gone crazy in that time.

'Aki, what are yo – ' He stopped suddenly as there was a bright flash of white, and something strangely soothing shot through his hand. The light faded, and Gray found himself staring incredulously at his hand. The wound had gone.

'Just something the phantoms gave me,' Aki murmured, turning his hand over to see if she had cleaned it all up. Something clicked in Gray's mind.

'You're a Whitey?' he asked tentatively, glad when she nodded. _I should have realised that sooner,_ he thought quietly. Whities – slang for _White Mages,_ which was their proper military title – were part of the group of people who had been infected by phantoms and lived to tell the tale. As well as Whities, there were Blackies and Zeros; each group having different powers as a result of their infection. Whities were able to cure and heal at much greater rates than anything current technology had to offer. They could also – when under extreme pressure – create invisible barriers to protect themselves and those around them. No-one was quite sure why they were able to do this, or how. The only theory that anyone had was that when a person was infected with phantoms particles, a tiny piece of the alien fused with the human. This fusion _changed_ the person, enabling them to do what they could. Speculation was that the phantoms also had these powers, but refrained from using them in public; trying to keep them hidden so that they would always have a secret weapon. Whities were quite rare; Gray had never actually seen one in action, and had often doubted that they actually existed. But now he couldn't ignore the fact; they _did_ exist and one of them was stood in front of him now.

'Is it that obvious?' Aki responded, dropping his hand and picking up the broken piece of equipment again. 'Now what do you want? I don't have much time to chat,' Gray remained quiet for a moment, allowing another uneasy silence to fall over them again. There was one question he'd always wanted to know the answer to, but now that he could ask it, he was almost afraid of what her response might be.

'Why didn't you say goodbye?' he asked softly. Aki stiffened noticeably, tentatively looking up and instantly hating herself for making Gray look so unhappy. She had tried for years now to try and ignore his feelings; it was the only way she could ignore her own.

'I just couldn't,' she replied quietly, all the acidity in her voice gone now. 'It's not like I scheduled my infection so I'd have time for fond farewells,' Gray's expression didn't change as he continued to watch her dejectedly.

'You could have let me know afterwards. I mean, you disappeared so suddenly,' His tone lowered ever so slightly as he looked down at the floor. Aki felt her heart tear itself into a million different pieces as she tried not to watch him. 'I thought you were dead,' Aki forced herself to shrug, to hide the pain from him.

'I almost was,' she said listlessly. It still hurt so much to even think about the few hours after her infection; more so than it hurt to think about her enforced break from him. At first there was nothing, but then that tight, choking sensation had appeared; intensifying to a point where she could hardly breathe. She had been certain that she was going to die just like all the rest; that she was about to become just another treasured memory. But Sid had thought of something and he had saved her life. When he had asked her to help him continue with the project, how could she refuse? She owed him her life, and she was never going to forget that. She had decided that it was easier this way, separating herself from those she had known before the infection. After all, who would want her now that she was nothing more than a ghost who couldn't take that final step into the afterlife? She had to save the planet, so that no-one else would suffer her fate. If that meant leaving Gray and having her emotions in tatters for years, then so be it. She didn't need happiness, not anymore.

'You know when I found out where you were?' Gray asked, an edge of blame creeping into his voice. 'Just before we lifted you out of New York. Two months, Aki. Two months, and you didn't even try to talk to me,' Aki shook her head in exasperation, rounding on him.

'And what was I supposed to say? That I was dying? Or would you have preferred me to lie and pretend that everything was alright?' She shook her head bitterly. 'I didn't have anything _to _say,' Gray let out a soft sigh, his calm brown eyes still watching her.

'You could have said anything,' he murmured gently. 'I was worried,'

'Why?' Aki asked, knowing it was a stupid question. But he had often asked her the very same thing when she told him how she worried so much about him. He would always disappear on missions – sometimes for days on end – without telling her where he was going. And then he never seemed to understand why she greeted him with angry, relieved tears and that one word. The last two months seemed to have made him understand her concern.

'Why?' he asked incredulously. 'My fiancée disappears without a trace for two months, and you wonder why I worried?' He shook his head, now glaring at her fiercely. It wasn't often he got angry, and Aki knew that when he did, it was always for the right reasons. He was infuriatingly noble like that. 'And now I find out that you were on Zeus when I was. You were in Houston when I was,' The anger subsided and his expression melted back into that unhappy frown.

'You didn't say anything. Why, Aki? I thought you loved me. . .' Aki sighed slowly, moving to the door as she smiled ever so slightly at him.

'Love was never the problem,' she said, opening the hatch of the ship. 'I was,' With that she left, leaving Gray to gaze mournfully after her.

The trip to Tucson was uneasy, but thankfully short. The Deep Eyes tried all they could to dispel the tension within the cramped cabin; even going so far as to attempt making pleasant conversation with the three soldiers sent by Hein. The newcomers – part of the 307s – were broody and unresponsive, unwilling to answer to even orders. After a few minutes, even Neil gave up, with a mutter of;

'Freaking androids or something. Do they train you guys or program you?' Gray was so preoccupied that he didn't even give that the sharp glare it deserved, and silence descended upon them.

Presently, the Deep Eyes began to discuss their plan, leaving Aki and the 307s out of it. Aki herself had been as silent as possible since her encounter with Gray and it showed. Her mood wasn't exactly helped when she started to get the distinct impression that the 307s were watching her intently.

'We'll drop energy buoys around the perimeter and hope they hold the phantoms off,' Jane was saying as she studied a map display of the wasteland.

'I wouldn't recommend staying there any longer than we have to though, sir,' Ryan continued. 'Phantoms are pretty dense all around. We could get snowballed pretty fast, even with the buoys,'

'They don't call this place the graveyard of the world for nothing,' Neil murmured, trying to look innocent as the other soldiers frowned at him. 'What?'

'Agreed,' Gray said, ignoring Neil and turning to Aki. His expression was painfully unreadable; like he was wearing a mask. 'In and out as fast as possible, alright?' Aki nodded, trying to look at the map.

'Alright. How long 'til we get there?'

'Five minutes or so,' Jane replied. Aki nodded again, placing her headset firmly on her head. It was almost time to explore one of the most deadly phantom plains on earth.


	6. The Graveyard of the World

The first thing that Aki noticed about Tucson was that it was _very_ sunny. Though she had never exactly been confined within the boundaries of the barriers, she always felt so amazed whenever she saw bright sunshine. The fog of war tended to darken things a lot, meaning that the weak sun generally had trouble breaking through the dense cloud. And inside the cities, the barriers threw a permanent orange glow on everything and blocked out almost all of the sunshine that reached them. So to see her surroundings in pure, brilliant sunlight was just. . . It was impossible for her to put into words.

She climbed to the top of a nearby ridge, waiting as the others disembarked from the ship, and flicked her headset on. She could now see the bioetheric energy buoys that had been dropped, their contents spilling out onto the dusty plain. And then there were the literally hundreds of phantoms that converged around the buoys. The sight alone was breathtaking, but when her chest tightened inexplicably – as if the particles within her could sense so many of its kind nearby – she began to find it hard to breathe. She steadied herself, trying to mentally calm the being within her and regain her control. It hadn't been this bad before; something was wrong.

'It's beautiful, isn't it?' In her worry, Aki hadn't noticed as Gray moved to stand beside her, gazing out at the expanse of barren land. But he was right. The energy released from the buoys illuminated the features of the normally invisible phantoms around them. Where there might usually appear to be nothing to the naked eye, there was now an ocean of colour and movement; waves of phantoms moving as countless tides in an endless sea. Forgetting her pain, she let herself smile a touch.

'Yeah,' She paused and looked up at him, silently glad that he had put his helmet on now. It meant she didn't have to look at his sad eyes as they gazed down at her. 'But we don't have time to watch. In and out as fast as possible, remember?' Gray nodded curtly, and they began to move.

They spent five or so minutes traversing the rocky outcrops and plateaus that stood between them and the fourth spirit. Aki was leading the way with Gray at her side, the Deep Eyes following and the three shifty 307s bringing up the rear. Aki could still feel the eyes of the strangers on her back, but she paid no attention to that now. No doubt they just wanted to do what everyone else did; stare at the freak.

'How far now?' Gray asked suddenly, surveying the landscape around them. As well as being brightly lit, Tucson was also very warm, with an arid atmosphere. Aki was feeling intensely warm and she was dressed only in her lab gear. She could only imagine how the soldiers felt under all that armour. Still, she consulted her wrist device, and took a few steps in the direction it indicated, coming to a halt at the top of a shallow valley wall.

'Down there. It's not far now,' she replied, swallowing slightly. This was one of the many valleys that littered the wasteland, and it was here that a lot of the fighting must have taken place. Before her lay nothing less than a huge open grave; full of dead bodies and the burned out carcasses of long-destroyed vehicles. Here was where the Battle of Tucson had been fought. And lost.

They slowly made their way into the valley, everyone concentrating on the beeping from Aki's wrist so they didn't have to look at the carnage around them. Thankfully it was growing more vigorous with each step, meaning they were getting closer.

'Keep your eyes peeled,' Aki murmured, looking around. 'It could be anything,'

'How are we supposed to find anything alive out here?' Jane asked, glancing around. 'It's just dead. All of it,'

There was a sudden sound, making all of them whirl around sharply, weapons trained on the source. A blackbird, perched on the window of a burnt out Sandcat. Aki grinned, consulting her wrist once more.

'There it is,' she said, prompting Gray to frown under his helmet.

'_That's_ our spirit?' Aki nodded, unable to hold the smile. This was going to be _fun._

'Yeah. And we need it alive,' she added, eyeing Neil who was already taking aim.

'How do we catch a bird alive?' he muttered, staring at the bird. It cocked its head to one side and trilled excitedly; as if it was amazed that any other living thing had made it this far.

'Very carefully,' Aki replied, keeping her eyes on it. She was suddenly reminded of her very unsuccessful attempts to capture sparrows when she was a child. Every time she thought she had crept up on them quietly, they would chirp suddenly and hop out of her reach. Well, surely she had to be faster now, and a blackbird couldn't be _that_ hard to catch, could it?

She took a gentle, silent step forwards and raised a hand towards the bird. It eyed her for a moment, before tweeting in an alarmed manner and launching itself into the air. Almost immediately, the Deep Eyes were following it, desperate to catch it as soon as possible and to get out of here quickly.

'It had to be something small and quick, didn't it?' Aki muttered, shaking her head gloomily. Gray patted her reassuringly on the shoulder.

'Don't worry. We're highly trained professionals, remember? We'll catch it,' He paused and looked over to where his troops were unsuccessfully trying to stalk up to the small bird. 'Eventually,' Aki raised an eyebrow at the soldiers, feeling the distinct – if somewhat cruel – urge to laugh at them.

'Are you sure about that?' Gray grinned under his helmet.

'Not really,' Aki smiled, shaking her head slowly. That was when she became aware of a sharp bleeping sound coming from the device on her wrist. She frowned at it for a moment, hoping that it too hadn't decided to malfunction on her, before looking back up at where the bird had been perched.

'Wait a second,' she mused, looking over the beat up vehicle in front of her. The bird had been perched on the front passenger door before flying off so suddenly, and Aki let herself gasp as she peered inside. Sat innocently on the seat inside was a crude nest, put together with dead twigs and scraps of paper. And in that nest were;

'Eggs,' she exclaimed, unable to believe that anything had been able to breed out here in the harsh desert. There were four eggs in total, all small and speckled. Through her headset, she could see that one of them was glowing bright blue, showing that it was a match for the spirit. When she had been looking at the bird, it must have been directly in front of the egg, giving her the impression that the creature was what she was searching for.

'An egg?' Gray asked; amusement tingeing his voice as Aki reached in to gently retrieve the egg. She nodded. 'Not the bird,' Aki shook her head this time. The sample secure, she looked back and almost laughed. Ryan and Jane had confronted the blackbird head on and were attempting to distract it while Neil advanced on it from behind. The smaller soldier leapt just in time for the bird to trill at him and shoot into the air, leaving Neil to collapse in a clumsy heap.

'Damnit, I _hate_ birds!' he growled, picking himself up and trying to ignore the laughter coming from his comrades.

'Should we tell them we found it?' Gray asked. Aki thought for a moment, unable to hold the grin.

'Nah,'

They began the slow trek to the rendezvous point, Gray calling for the ship to land and pick them up. Aki was still smiling as the Deep Eyes realised they had lost the bird yet again, but now that she didn't have the spirit to concentrate on, she became aware that her chest was slowly getting icy cold. The small smirk slowly turned into a grimace as the particles within her tightened painfully again. It was much, much worse than she had ever felt before; as though someone were trying to crush her torso into a tiny, frozen ball. She put a hand to her heart, fully aware that she could do nothing now. They were too far from the base and none of the soldiers had the know-how to put the spirit into her chest plate.

'Gra – ' she gasped, unable to finish the sentence as she staggered to her knees. She was dimly aware of Gray calling her name, as if from very faraway, but she couldn't respond as everything went black.

'Deep Eyes, here now,' Gray yelled as Aki collapsed beside him.

'But, the spi – ' Ryan started, his eyes on the unconscious scientist as Gray picked her up.

'We have the spirit,' Gray replied. 'Jane, you take the lead, Ryan the back. Neil, you cover us,' He turned to the 307s, who suddenly looked very nervous. 'You guys be on the lookout for trouble. Move,' Everyone nodded, and began to run towards where the ship was landing in the distance.

'Incoming!' someone shouted suddenly. Gray could just see the faint shadow of the meta phantom as it flew over them, glowing a pale yellow. Jane had shouldered her rifle, and was pointing two fingers at the attacker as it wheeled around, ready to attack. Since her infection, she had been designated as a Blackie – or _Black Mage_ – someone who could manipulate nature to devastating effects. Blackies were also people who had survived phantom infestations and were more common than Whities. Due to their incredible attacking capabilities, they were regarded as a valuable resource in the army these days. Whereas it may have taken all four of them several minutes to take down a meta, Gray had been assured that Jane would be able to do it alone in a matter of moments. Apparently, she was a natural.

The phantom drew nearer, Gray trying to ignore its inhuman squeals which alerted more of the aliens to its position. It was almost on top of them now; if Jane didn't do something quickly. . .

Suddenly – without any kind of warning – the phantom burst into flames. Screaming loudly, it began to fall to earth, great chunks of it breaking from the whole, falling dangerously close to the soldiers as they covered the last twenty feet to the ship. One of the 307s, lagging behind the rest, was unlucky enough to trip and fall, unable to avoid the burning hunk of phantom carcass that landed on him, tearing away his soft blue spirit.

'Get us out of here now,' Gray called as soon as everyone was on board. He couldn't understand what was going on; the phantoms should have been occupied with the buoys for at least another ten minutes. Could they have failed suddenly, allowing the phantoms to sense the life forms near them? It certainly seemed so; phantoms were moving in to attack from all angles now as the ship slowly made its way into the air. He laid Aki down on the bench that lined the left side of the ship, smoothing hair out of her face as she slept. The two remaining 307s were conspiring quietly as the ship lunged uneasily to one side, no doubt to avoid the flailing attack of a phantom. Gray paid no attention to them – Aki was his main concern now. In fact, he paid little attention to anything else, except when a cry of;

'Hard to port,' came from the pilot. The soldiers all threw themselves to the left, only the second of the 307s unable to get completely out of way. A phantom tendril passed through the right side of the ship, just catching the soldiers arm and literally dragging his spirit out of him. The final 307 stood and stared at his companion for a moment, looking entirely uneasy with the situation at hand. But he didn't move for the rest of the journey, instead remaining intent on watching Aki as she lay there. The Deep Eyes also remained strangely quiet, leaving Gray free to focus on Aki.

'What happened, Aki?' he whispered. 'Where are you?'

Aki opened her eyes slowly, and was most surprised to find that she was in a place she had never seen before. The plains of earth were desolate, but they were nothing compared to the bleakness here. A harsh red sun beat down on the cracked, dusty ground around her, making her thirsty just thinking about it. The air was stale, dead even, and there was no sound at all, save her own worried breathing. There was nothing here; no plants of animals. The entire place was just. . . dead.

_(You are dying.)_

Aki whirled around as that voice echoed through the empty land, coming face-to-stomach with what could only be described as a monster. Tall and muscular, the creature was all scaly black with long, powerful legs and huge crushing arms. It towered over her, just watching calmly as she gaped back up at it. This was one hell of a dream.

_(We are dying also.)_

Aki frowned; the shape was familiar. She could almost imagine this creature stood over her, reaching into her very being and taking out her spirit. But, why would she be dreaming about. . .

'You're a phantom?' she asked uncertainly. The creature didn't move.

_(That is what you call us.)_

'What do you want from me?' Aki asked, feeling a lot braver than she would have imagined. But, what was there to be afraid of? She had already stared death in the face far too many times to be scared of it anymore. And besides, this was only a dream; something created by her weary subconscious as the being within her slowly sucked away her life.

_(We want help. We need a leader.)_

Aki shook her head instantly, partly out of derision. This was more than preposterous. Why would a phantom – even in her twisted psyche – ask _her_ for help? She would never help them, and besides, she was no leader.

'You're my enemy. I won't help you,' she stated firmly. The phantom moved for the first time, seeming to sigh silently.

_(We knew you would not accept. But you will die without us.)_

Aki shrugged, that familiar crushing sensation appearing around her heart again. A strange thought hit her – was this what was inside her?

'Better I die than join you,' Pain suddenly exploded all over her body, forcing her to the floor where she cried out. She couldn't see the phantom turn its back on her, walking away as she writhed in agony.

_(You have decided. We shall find another. Now you will die.)_

Aki couldn't respond. The pain had reached her throat and was choking her; she couldn't force herself to breathe. She gasped and gagged and curled up into a ball, vaguely aware through the pain that everything was going blinding white.


	7. The Fall Begins

Sid knew something was wrong, even before he saw Aki lying unconscious in Gray's arms. He didn't see the strained look on the soldiers face as he laid her down on one of the operating tables, his worry more than evident in his eyes.

'She just collapsed, doctor,' Gray said as one of the Deep Eyes came in with what had to be the sample. Sid gave a preoccupied nod, instructing one of the technicians to check that the sample matched what was needed for the fourth spirit and moving to Aki's side.

'How long ago?' he asked, years of clinical experience hiding the tinge of concern in his voice.

'About half an hour. We got back with the spirit as fast as we could,' Gray replied almost apologetically. There was nothing to be sorry for; to get from Tucson to New York in such a short amount of time took a miracle.

'It's a match, doctor,' the tech said suddenly, prompting Sid to nod. Gray was ushered away from Aki as the other lab hands moved into action, hooking the unconscious scientist up to a nondescript machine with what appeared to be thousand of leads coming out of it. The Deep Eyes watched, half-perplexed and half-desperately worried as they watched the techs work from a distance.

'Is she going to be alright?' Gray asked, unable to hold the question back. Sid looked up at him steadily, his eyes betraying what he really thought.

'I hope so,' he replied uncertainly. 'Once the spirit is in, all we can do is wait,' Gray sighed, trying to be near to Aki while staying out of the way of the bustling lab hands. Behind him, the rest of the Deep Eyes – still in their armour – were watching tensely.

'Hey,' Neil murmured, breaking their silence as he looked around. 'Where'd the other guy go?' Jane and Ryan twisted around, trying to catch a glimpse of infantry armour amongst the machines.

'He was right behind us when we got off the ship,' Ryan said, frowning. The surviving 307 was nowhere to be seen.

'Sir. One of the soldiers we sent after doctor Ross has returned,' Hein allowed a contented smile to creep across his face as Elliot spoke. 'He says he has urgent news about the doctor,'

'Excellent. Send him in,'

The smile was quickly replaced by a slightly raised eyebrow as the soldier strode in, still wearing almost all of his armour. He'd managed to remove the helmet though, and Hein could see the man was pale and drained; as if he'd suffered a major shock. Even so, the soldier saluted smartly; a gesture that Hein didn't bother returning.

'What's this "urgent news", captain?' he asked, wanting to get straight to the point.

'We reached the wastelands without problem, sir, and proceeded to search for what doctor Ross needed. Moments after finding it, the doctor collapsed and the phantoms began attacking,' The soldier frowned slightly, as if confused about something. 'It was like something was attracting them; they shouldn't have been able to sense us through the buoys that were dropped beforehand,' He shook his head a little. 'I managed to escape with my life, as did the Deep Eyes and the doctor, but my men weren't so lucky,' If Hein had been a more compassionate man, he might have shown a little sympathy for the lost troops, but that had never been a problem to him. Soldiers were easy to replace; there were always good supplies of people who wanted to fight the phantoms. Besides, there were more important matters for him to worry about, so a vague nod was his only reaction to the news.

'You say the phantoms were attracted to something?'

'It seemed that way, sir,' the soldier replied, quietly upset that his superior had brushed off the deaths of his friends so easily.

'And that doctor Ross collapsed at the same time?'

'Near enough, sir. As soon as she was down, that was when the phantoms appeared,' Hein took his eyes off the soldier, quietly mulling over this information.

'Interesting. . .' he murmured. 'Was there anything else odd about the doctor?' The soldier shifted uneasily where he was stood, looking down at the floor for a brief moment before replying.

'Well, while she was unconscious, she was talking. Most of the time it was just garbage, but then suddenly she became clear; as if she had woken up then and there,' Hein nodded slightly again. This was more like it. Alright, so it wasn't hard evidence that there was some sort of alliance between Ross and the phantoms, but it was getting there.

'What did she say?' The soldier frowned.

'When she was clear, it was like she was having a conversation with someone only she could see. She started by saying something about a phantom. I couldn't hear what else she was saying clearly, but she did mention the phantoms several times,' Hein sat forwards, allowing a frown to settle on his face.

'Are you saying she was having a conversation with a phantom?' he asked, somewhat incredulously. The soldier almost shrugged.

'I couldn't say, sir. But that's what it sounded like. . .' Hein had to physically stop himself from smiling. This was good enough; the council was always worrying about what happened to terminally infected patients. If they managed to stay alive for longer than a few days, the victims would always degrade mentally, withdrawing within themselves. Anytime you could get them to make any sense, all they would talk about was phantoms. Though there had never been any solid evidence that a terminal infection meant some kind of link was made between the human victim and the phantom fragments, the possibility was always there.

'Do you have any evidence of this, soldier?' The 307 nodded slightly, reaching into his belt and pulling out a small tape. The helmets the soldiers wore were able to record everything the soldier did and said; something that had been built in originally so that debriefing could be made easier and more efficient. But of course, the tapes could be removed from the armour and used for other purposes. _This is perfect,_ Hein thought. If what the soldier said was true, then this would be more than enough to get the good doctor locked up for treason. Maybe even good enough to stop that little "Spirit project" the bioetheric division was running.

'Good work, captain,' he said, standing and taking the tape. Such vital evidence couldn't be left in the hands of a mere captain.

'Major, I want doctors Ross and Sid arrested immediately. Confiscate all materials pertaining to their project as well. Traitors like them should not be allowed to roam free,' Elliot frowned slightly.

'Are you sure that's wise, sir? Without consulting the council?' Hein turned to glare at the other officer.

'Would you rather have them free, so that they can escape?' Elliot remained silent; he knew when not to argue. The glare on Heins face turned to a sneer. 'Then follow your orders and don't question me,' The major nodded slowly, turning to leave and relay the orders. Hein remained stood where he was, idly examining the tape in his hand. This would definitely be good enough to get rid of doctor Ross, and would at least hold up that projects of Sid's, if not destroy it entirely. But it still wouldn't be enough to convince the council of what needed to be done; what _had_ to be done. He would have to take drastic measures now; the time for talking about it had come and gone. It would all be worth it in the end, because he was right. Zeus was the key to winning this war, not some crackpot theory about plants and animals and nature. He would prove that to them all.

His gaze flicked back to the 307, who was still stood – a little uneasily – in front of him.

'Captain, gather a squad of men and bring them here. We have a job to do. Dismissed,' The soldier saluted, turned heel and left quickly but Hein didn't see or hear that as he moved to gaze out of the shaded window behind his desk. Finally, they would all realise the truth, and soon they would be thanking him for destroying the phantoms once and for all.

Everything was white; so blindingly white that she reflexively tried to squeeze her eyes shut. But there was no response; she couldn't even feel her body, let alone control it. What the phantom had told her, coupled with this bizarre sensation of nothingness led her to a rather grim conclusion. _I'm dead,_ she thought slowly. _I lost. The phantom won. . ._ For all she had heard about it, death was not like she had imagined. She had always thought she would have been angry or enraged – or at least a little saddened – by her own death, but no. She felt completely at peace, as if she were calmly drifting along on a warm air current. She could feel no pain anymore and for the first time she realised; she was free. Death was a release.

'Aki?' She frowned, or at least she would have done had she any control over her body. That had sounded strangely like Sid, but surely. . . _It couldn't be him_, she thought, straining to hear anything else through the white. It felt like someone had wrapped cotton wool around her head, muting anything and everything that could be around her. This was beginning to remind her of the hazy moments surrounding her infection, when she was able to hear and nothing else. But surely that wasn't the case here. She was dead, wasn't she?

'Is she alright, doctor?' This was starting to get surreal. _Gray?_ She thought, a strange thought crossing her completely confused mind. _Is this hell? Am I going to be forced to have to listen to the people I love but not be able to talk back to them?_ That was cruel, even for hell, but it was the only explanation she could come up with. She couldn't quite figure out what was going on; her mind wasn't letting her think straight.

'She should be fine,' the voice that sounded like Sid said. 'The fourth spirit is in. Her vitals are lifting,' As soon as he said that, feeling began to return to Aki's limbs; she could just sense her fingers and toes as if they had been separated from the rest of her body and were floating free in this whiteness. They were warm, making her realise just how cold the rest of her was. Then, the warmth began to spread up her limbs, replacing the numbing, icy cold that she now realised had been there. Her mind began to clear, though slowly. She tried to move something – anything – and was pleasantly surprised to find that her body was paying attention to her.

'Aki? Open your eyes, Aki,' _Now why didn't I think of that sooner?_ she thought, pooling her energy and doing her best to open her eyes. The white parted and suddenly she could see them stood over her.

'Aki!' Gray exclaimed, his expression widening to a very relieved grin. Aki did her best to smile back, but could only come up with a weak frown instead.

'What happened?' she asked groggily, not sure if hazy memories concerning a conversation with a phantom were true or not. Gray opened his mouth to reply, but Sid managed to get there first.

'It doesn't matter, Aki. What matters now is that – '

'Everyone stay right where they are. You're all under arrest,' Aki couldn't quite see what was going on from her vantage point on the bed, and her mind was still being incredibly slow. She blinked slightly, unsure of whether to believe what she had just heard. Even as she was gently hauled to her feet, and she caught a glimpse of armour through the sudden wave of nausea, it didn't occur to her what had just happened.

'Sid?' she whispered, confused. One moment she had been floating along on a cloud of peace, and now nothing wanted to make any sense. If anyone would help her, it would be Sid.

'Don't worry, Aki,' he reassured her from somewhere to her left. 'It'll be alright,' Even through her drowsiness and confusion, Aki could make out his tone and it gave her the distinct impression that nothing was going to be alright.

The barrier stations had long interested and disgusted him. True, it was amazing what could be done by science to protect the masses, yet it was all too horrifying at how easily everything could go wrong.

'It's been a while now. . .' he mused out-loud. The soldiers around him were unsure of how to respond, or even whether to reply at all. They were all still wondering about their orders; why were they going to the control station to arrest everyone? Hein began to think – not for the first time – that he should have brought Elliot along on this one, rather than leaving him in charge of the arrests in the labs. The major might be growing a little rebellious these last few days, but he knew what had to be done, and he was willing to do it. But naturally, the Deep Eyes had gotten involved, and had to be restrained as well. They would probably get court martialled along with all the rest. _No matter,_ he thought casually. _They can always be replaced,_ They were just more sacrifices made for the greater good.

They were nearing the very core of the station now, a place that was always situated deep underground. Though phantoms could go through the earth to get to bunkers and the like, they often chose not to. The thinking was that the barrier control stations were the most important parts of a city. If they fell, the city fell, and so they had to be protected. Placing them underground was just part of that. It had been seven years now since he had been surrounded by that low hum of the generators. Last time, he had been there to congratulate and commend the scientists on their latest foolproof design. _So much for that,_ he thought bitterly. Two months later, the supposedly "perfect" barrier had developed a crucial fault and the entire city had been devoured by the phantoms. He'd lost everyone he'd ever known; all the people he'd ever loved in the fall of the city. It had taken seven years; seven long, painful years, for him to reach this point. His revenge was so close, and yet so far. The council was not going to get between him and the retribution he deserved to hand out. They would learn of the mistakes they were making, even if it meant teaching them the hard way. This was for everyone who hadn't escaped San Francisco. This was for the family he had lost.

Hein's expression hardened as the lift stopped and his soldiers disembarked. The barrier technicians were already peering nervously through the glass at the fully armoured troops that were approaching. Well, all they had to do was co-operate, and none of them would get hurt.

'Arrest these men,' Hein said, gesturing with a wave of one arm. There wasn't a struggle; techs had never been known for their courage in the face of an armed squad of soldiers. One of his men took the main control panel and began to tap away.

'Decrease power to sector 31,' Hein said, gazing down at the main generator as he spoke. If no-one would listen to him when he spoke, then they would all learn. There was an uneasy silence all around as the soldiers exchanged glances. One of them stepped forwards, frowning under his helmet.

'But, sir. Without the barrier, the phantoms will – '

'I know what will happen, soldier,' Hein growled, rounding on him fiercely. 'What do you think I am?' The soldier didn't answer, but no-one else even moved. Hein, still glaring, shook his head. 'You will lower the power to sector 31. You will allow the phantoms to enter. The barrier will be closed and then every soldier in this city will move to destroy those phantoms,' Why couldn't they see that what he was doing was for their sake? Did they want to continue fighting and dying when the answer to all their problems was right there, not being used? Why were they fighting him? Why didn't anyone try to see it from _his_ point of view? Did they want countless more cities to be lost; for more people to lose friends and family needlessly? He wouldn't let that happen. No-one was going to stop him. Not now.

'Do you understand?' A few soldiers nodded warily, but most of them remained completely still and very unsure.

'But why, si – '

'That is an order, captain,' Hein snarled, turning away from the soldiers to face the generators again. 'And you _will_ obey it,' The soldier watched Heins back for a moment, indecision tearing him apart. This was not the right thing to do, or was it? Why would the general order such a thing if he didn't think it was the best course of action? But then again, the general wasn't exactly the most stable of people. The captain shook his head slightly, sighing. No, he couldn't disobey a general, not on a direct order. And so, he nodded to the soldier and the control panel and stood back, hoping that Hein knew what he was doing.

Sector 31 was completely still and silent, save for the occasional shufflings of an old homeless man who was rummaging through the trash. It had been a hard day for him, and all he wanted to do now was lie back and get some sleep. It might have been easier for him if those punk kids hadn't stolen the simple box he once called home. Still, what could he do? Just rummage through the garbage and hope to find a new home.

The light around him flickered suddenly, making him look up and frown at the source. He was almost directly next to the barrier here so it was as bright as day. But had it. . ? He stared at it for a moment, seeing no answer as it continued to hum and glow. He shook his head and turned away. _Nah,_ he thought, his mind back on finding something useful.

The barrier suddenly flickered again, for longer this time; the hum dying for a moment. The man turned away from the trash, his mind off that now as he gaped at the barrier. It was no longer the strong orange it was supposed to be; it had become a pale, faint yellow and it was fading still. He took a reflexive step back, still staring as something started to come through the barrier. A large, ugly head followed by a strong, ethereal body. The phantom stared at the man for a split second, knowing full well that he could see it. And then it attacked, so quickly he didn't have time to scream. More phantoms began to pour through the gap in the barrier, quietly wondering how this was possible all of a sudden. Not that they minded; it was another chance to lessen the power of the native creatures.

New York had just lost its first victim. And the Fall was only just starting.


	8. Imprisonment and Escape

'Are you feeling alright now?' Aki nodded slowly, opening her eyes and turning to where Gray was watching her; concern etched into his features. After being literally thrown into the cell, she had been on the brink of losing control; her confusion and nausea combining to make her feel. . . She didn't know how she had felt; she only knew she didn't want to feel that way again. Thankfully, Sid and Gray were in the same cell as her, and had been able to calm her down before she had hurt herself on the deadly laser bars that kept her inside the cell.

'My head hurts and my body aches, but otherwise I'm fine,' she admitted, earning a nod from Sid.

'Thank goodness. Now we only have to worry about why we're here,'

'I think this is the only time we've been jailed and it hasn't been my fault,' Neil piped up. Only Aki smiled, and even that was weak.

'It was that other guy, from the 307s,' Jane growled, shaking her head. She had been put in a cell separate from everyone else, behind a field that suppressed her magic. As Aki only had white magic, she wasn't seen as much of a threat.

'I bet he ran straight to Hein as soon as we took our eyes off him,' Ryan continued, prompting nods from the other soldiers.

'Well,' Sid said wearily. 'I might have guessed the good general had something to do with this,' Gray was the only one shaking his head, his scepticism more than obvious.

'But why? And how? What kind of evidence could he have against you?'

'What's he accused us of?' Aki asked quietly.

'Treason,' Sid replied simply. Aki felt her heart sink. Hein was exactly the kind of person who could take the collapse of a person and turn it into an accusation of treachery. So it was. . .

'It's my fault. When I collapsed. He must think. . .' She trailed off, trying not to think of the dream. The more she thought about it, the more real it seemed and the less like a dream it felt. The phantom had demanded her help. If she had been more afraid of death, would she have agreed? Maybe she wouldn't have rejected it so easily. Maybe Hein would have been right in accusing her of being one of them.

'It's not your fault, Aki,' Gray said firmly.

'He's right,' Sid agreed. 'After all, you know what lengths Hein would we willing to go to in order to silence us,' Aki nodded silently, her unease remaining through their attempts to disperse it. _You're being silly, Aki,_ she told herself. _It was a dream. Nothing more. It was a reaction by your body to try and cope with the stress provided by the infection,_ That made her feel better, but only a little. The doubt remained.

'You're right,' she said, nodding. 'Of course you are,' She smiled weakly and nodded again, taking this moment to look at her surroundings.

'So, any clue on how we get out of here?' she asked. The soldiers all looked at Neil, who held up his hands and shook his head.

'You think _I_ can get us out?' he protested. 'Jane's the magic one, ask _her,_' Jane rolled her eyes.

'Nice try,'

'C'mon, Neil. Prove you're actually useful for a change,' Ryan said, smirking slightly. The smaller soldier let out a groan of exasperation.

'But. . .'

'No buts, Neil,' Gray warned. 'We have to get out of here and to the council before Hein does something drastic,'

Hein watched with growing satisfaction as more and more lights began to flicker furiously on the display before him, indicating numerous phantom breaches. Just a few more, and the council would be putty in his hands.

'How many are there?' he enquired quietly.

'More than enough,' one of the soldiers replied, his voice wary. Hein shot him a glare, but did no more. The soldier was right; this _would_ be more than enough to convince the council of what needed to be done.

'Sound an alert and send all troops to sector 31. Close the barrier back up,' Various soldiers saluted and scurried off to carry out the orders. Within moments, a low alarm was blaring throughout the city, a signal for all troops to go to arms. Hein nodded contentedly and turned away, intent on heading up to the surface. He had to see this; the massacre of phantoms that would eventually lead to their demise.

'Uh, sir?' one of the soldiers exclaimed, his voice more panicked than Hein might have expected. 'I'm reading numerous phantom breaches,' Hein didn't even dignify that stupid remark with the glare it deserved.

'And what did you expect, lieutenant? That they would just turn around and go away?' The soldier shook his head, pointing one shaking finger at the display in front of him.

'Outside of sector 31, sir. The phantoms, they're spreading,' Hein frowned, turning back to look at the panel. That couldn't be at all right; there had to be some sort of a mistake.

'What?' he asked, studying the display. Sure enough, various dots that represented phantoms were spreading to other areas.

'They're using the bioetheric flowpipes to travel around, sir,' Hein half shook his head. That was impossible, surely. From all documented evidence and tests, there was no way that could happen.

'How? Nothing can survive in those. . .' He trailed off slowly, his eyes on a single phantom that was travelling quickly in their direction. _No!_ This couldn't happen. The generators were delicate; even the slightest touch could set off a reaction to disable them. And if the generators went down. . . _This wasn't supposed to happen. It wasn't supposed to be this way!_

'Meta headed this way, sir,' the soldier beside him warned. Hein's mind raced, but he came up with nothing. For all his knowledge of tactics, he couldn't find a way to keep the generators running and remain alive. He didn't want to die, but he _couldn't _let the generators fail. The meta was almost on top of them and Hein felt his heart miss a beat. There was no way out. The control station would fall and then. . .

The lights around them flickered and faded, forcing Hein out of his trance. That meant the meta had already found and disabled the backup generators. Electricity all over the city would be failing. These reactors were the only ones left, and he could not let them fall. He had to keep the barrier up as long as possible and hope that other soldiers could get rid of the rest of the attackers. The soldiers around him were bristling, their weapons raised in anticipation.

'Hold your fire!' Hein yelled, backing up a step. There was no way they could shoot at the meta; if they missed they would hit the generators. Maybe the phantom would bypass them anyway; ignoring the people and high amounts of bioetheric energy it could sense there. _When pigs fly over a frozen hell,_ he thought, a dense silence around him. He could hear nothing but the low hum of the generators growing quieter and quieter, punctuated by his own ragged breathing.

The first attack came closer to Hein than he would have liked, the control panel soldier collapsing to the floor in a clatter of armour. Hein gasped, following the phantom with his eyes as it appeared out of the floor. It looked like it had passed through an energy buoy, but the features were highlighted to an extent he had never seen before. He could make out every vein and scale and pore of the flying creature as it wheeled around, taking two more soldiers with it. The survivors lost their cool and – ignoring Hein as he yelled at them to stop – began to fire wildly at the meta as it disappeared into a generator. The engine sparked and then began to crumple, as if being crushed from outside.

The explosion was so forceful it knocked him back against the wall, his head meeting metal and stars exploding in front of him. His body ignored him and his attempts to get up as the phantom freewheeled, taking soldiers at whim. Through blurred vision he could see that there were more now; alphas appearing from the floor, taking any remaining troops by surprise and swallowing souls like there was nothing else in the world. Hein watched all this dimly, feeling a strange sense of detachment as his senses returned slowly - too slowly - and the rest of the generators shook and exploded around him. The only thing that ran through his mind now was; _This wasn't supposed to happen,_ over and over again. He somehow managed to stagger to his feet, barely aware of warm blood dripping onto his neck. He had to get out now. He couldn't stay here.

He was almost at the lift when it happened, when his wrist became so icy cold that he stumbled and fell to his knees. He was suddenly aware of something within his body; something so essential and basic that he couldn't survive without it. And yet it was so well hidden that he had never felt it before. But now he _could_ feel it, slowly sliding away from him; _tearing_ away from his very being. He forced himself to look to his right, and felt all his hope leave him as he saw the alpha there. It stared at him, its tentacles wrapped tightly around his arm. He could see a vague sense of understanding in its sunken eyes. It _knew_ he was injured, and still it tried to take his life.

'No,' he muttered through gritted teeth, left hand fumbling for his handgun. The alpha began to pull back, dragging his spirit with it as it went. Hein's head span sickeningly as his body and soul became disjointed; he had always wondered what it felt like, and now he knew. He let out a silent moan, able to see the bright blue glow of his own spirit; its fist clenched as it vainly tried to resist.

'I won't die like this,' He could feel it all slipping away; there was no hope now. He was going to die here like all the rest and he would have no-one to blame but himself. It was his fault. His fault. His. . .

His hand suddenly found his gun and in one motion he was free; his arm icy cold and numb as he crawled into the lift and lay there, hoping against hope that this was all just another nightmare.

'Alright. . . Almost there,' Neil murmured, frowning slightly.

'You be careful,' Jane warned, slightly worried about what the Thief was doing. After studying the layout of his cell for a moment, he had suddenly stuck his arm out in between two of the laser bars that held him in. And now he was fiddling with a control panel that lay on the wall beside the cell. He couldn't see it, and could only use one arm; an arm that was in constant danger of getting sliced off should he slip. It was a precarious situation to say the least.

'Ah, it's fine,' Neil muttered, the tip of his tongue stuck out in a gesture of concentration. Ryan raised an eyebrow.

'_There's_ a pretty sight,' he joked.

'Do you want out or what, sarge?' Neil said, scowling. 'I hope this works, y'know. . .'

'Why?' Gray asked, frowning suspiciously.

'Cause if I've got the wrong circuit board, it could uh. . .' Neil grinned sheepishly. 'Let's just say it won't be pretty,'

'No, tell us what happens,' Jane asked, scowling at him. 'It's bad enough you trying to get your arm amputated, but are you trying to kill us as well?'

'Not on purpose,' Aki smiled, shaking her head slightly. Even though she was stuck in a cell on counts of treason, she couldn't think of a group of people she'd rather share the cell with. She had never been too fond of the military before; she'd always assumed they were all like Hein and that soldiers like Gray were few and far between. The last few days had proved her wrong. They were helping to disperse the unease she was feeling; an unease that had spiked sharply in the last few minutes. It hadn't helped that her infection appeared to be more active than usual; acute stabbing pains shooting through her chest. It almost felt like it had right at the beginning; before Sid had got the membrane around the infestation. It felt like she was being infected all over again.

'Ok,' Neil said suddenly, nodding. 'If the bars disappear, it worked. If _we_ disappear, it didn't, but we'll be dead so it won't really matter, right?' Everyone gaped at him, but before anyone could respond, he shrugged.

'No complaints? Good. Here goes,'

The control panel sparked suddenly, but the bars did disappear, prompting Neil to grin and take a bow.

'See? Nothing to worry about,' Jane stepped gingerly out of her cell, eyeing the smaller soldier contemptuously.

'Yeah. Nothing,'

'I think it's time to get out of here,' Sid said gravely. The older scientist had been silent for a good few minutes now, something that was most unusual. But Aki could understand his concern; something wasn't right here. She nodded, keeping close to Gray. Suddenly having him as a bodyguard didn't seem so bad after all.

'I agree,' she said. The Deep Eyes didn't need telling twice, especially as a siren began to sound all around them. Gray listened for a second, then frowned.

'That's the call to arms. . .' he said slowly. The soldiers all exchanged glances.

'We're under attack,' Ryan muttered.

'We _really_ have to get out of here,' Neil said, leading the way. Gray eyed him for a second, but had to agree.

'We protect the doctors. Let's move out,'


	9. The Fifth Spirit

Aki was surprised not to be stopped by any guards while they crept quickly out of the detention area. In fact, she was surprised not to meet anyone at all. Even if the city was under attack, surely they would leave someone to guard the prisoners. They didn't see another human being until they reached the main reception area of the brig, and the sight that greeted them was. . .

'My god. . .' she whispered, unable to say anything else. The sight before her seemed to have sucked any reaction she might have had right out of her. All she could do was stand there and cast her eyes around the room, taking in more than she wished to. There were bodies everywhere; techs and guards and prisoners all littering the expanse between her and the exit. Some lay as if they hadn't been expecting their sudden deaths, others had their weapons still smoking by their sides. But most had been trying to escape; trying and failing.

'Aki, here,' Gray said quietly, handing her a headset. It took her a good few moments to realise that it was _her_ headset, the one that had been taken and confiscated only hours ago.

'I don't think they got round to sorting our equipment after we were arrested,' Gray explained, pointing to a pile of armour that lay behind the desk. Ryan was putting on his gloves and boots, casting a nervous glance around him as he did.

'I don't like this. We're pretty far from the barrier and it can't have been that long since they got in. How'd they get here so fast?' Aki thought that over for a moment, idly watching as Gray took his sword from the pile behind the desk. Ryan had a point. They were in sector 17, about as far from the edge of the city as you could be. It took several minutes to fly from the nearest border of the city to here. To have walked on foot would probably take an hour at least; mainly because the sectors were separated by huge steel dividers, which in turn were protected by hordes of soldiers. The only thing that linked all the sectors together were the bioetheric pipes, but they were all so sure that nothing could survive in there, much less use them as a form of transportation. How _did_ the phantoms get here so fast? She shrugged slightly, slipping on her headset.

'I've no idea,' she said, taking a look around the room; as if to check if there were anyone left alive. Her brow furrowed, and she gasped.

'What's wrong?' Gray asked, at her side immediately. 'I don't see any phantoms,' Aki was already making her way over to a corner of the room where a group of soldiers lay sprawled over each other.

'It's. . . There's someone alive and he's. . .' She couldn't quite believe it herself, but she silently thanked Sid for having the foresight to configure her gear to recognise all eight compatible spirits. It meant that if she stumbled across one by accident on a mission, then she wouldn't have to go back. Through her eyepiece she could just see the faint spirit of one of the soldiers. She was now digging through the heap of soldiers, trying to find the one that was still with them.

'What is it?'

'He's the fifth spirit,'

By the time she found the soldier, Sid had already picked his way through the carnage to join her.

'We don't have the equipment to collect it. . .' he mused, checking the vitals of the soldier. 'And he won't be with us for long. We'll channel the spirit directly into your chest-plate and hope it works,' Aki nodded, her eyes on the unconscious guard. He was young; probably only just out of the Academy. And he was dying; beyond even her help. She could cure fairly severe injuries over time, but the gaping wound in his stomach was too much for her abilities. It looked like he had been caught by friendly fire; no doubt he had been in the wrong place at the wrong time when the phantoms appeared.

'Poor kid,' she whispered, brushing a strand of hair out of his face. The soldiers must have been caught off guard; most of them weren't wearing their armour. The soldier stirred suddenly, opening bloodshot eyes to gaze blearily at her.

'The. . . The p-phantoms,' he stuttered, barely audible. 'B-barrier. . . failed,' Aki shushed him gently, smiling as best she could. _Just like San Francisco,_ she thought. Countless cities had fallen and been lost in the years since the phantoms arrived, but none had hurt her more than San Francisco. She had never visited the other cities, but she had lived in San Francisco for most of her childhood. To think that she might have been there when it happened. . .

'N-no esca. . . escape. . .' the soldier rasped. He was slipping away, and he was taking the spirit with him.

'We have it,' Sid said quietly, backing off. Aki gave a preoccupied nod, her attention still on the soldier.

'Just close your eyes,' she said kindly. 'You'll find a way out,' He choked, coughing up a thin sheen of blood as he tried to shake his head.

'There's n-no wa. . .' He trailed off and spoke no more, unseeing eyes glazed and wide-open; still so full of fear. Aki sighed deeply, closing his eyes gently. She couldn't let herself break down now, but this was almost too much.

'We have company, sir,'

'Time to get going, Aki,' She was hauled to her feet and half dragged to the door before she glanced back and saw several alphas appear through the floor. To her surprise, they were almost entirely visible to the naked eye; every single feature highlighted to a detail she had only dreamed of before. She was left with no doubt that the creature in her dream had been a phantom; this proved it. But what did it mean?

The next five minutes passed like some kind of nightmare to her as they made their way to the hangar. Neil had hijacked an abandoned vehicle and was keeping himself occupied with driving it. Everyone else was completely silent, not even looking out at the carnage around them. They were all shocked; after all, how could this happen? You almost expected it in other barrier cities, but not New York. It and Houston were considered the two safest cities in the world. This was more than a shock. It was a catastrophe.

They were passing through half the city, and not once did Aki see another live human being. There were countless corpses; mostly civilians now who had been caught while trying to flee to the escape ships. She felt strangely hollow as her eyes settled on another mound of bodies, their limbs lay splayed out at odd angles. It was almost as though she had been detached from the situation and was watching through the eyes of someone else. She almost couldn't believe it, but a brief look up at the barrier confirmed her fears. When they had first got out of the detention area, the entire barrier had been glowing an unhealthy pale yellow, but now it had degraded even further. There were panels missing now, huge gaping holes through which she could see the moon staring back down at her. It had been years since she had seen the moonlight like this, but right now she was too worried to think about its beauty.

'We'll take your ship, Aki,' Gray said, snapping her out of her trance. Aki nodded vaguely, casting another glance about her. They hadn't met too many phantoms on their trip either, something that was secretly worrying her. It reminded her a lot of Tucson; of the calm before the storm there. But now they had reached the hangar – thank god. Only a few minutes more and they would be out of this nightmare.

'Hey, you guys!' Aki blinked and looked up to see a fully armoured soldier waving frantically at them. 'Hurry up! The last transport's ready to go!' About a hundred feet away, Aki could see the craft already firing up its engines, even though there were several people still trying to board. Far above the hangar, between the roof and the closest gap in the barrier, several metas were circling. It was as if they were daring the transport to try and get past.

'We've got our own ride,' Gray called back firmly. Aki didn't blame him; she didn't trust this soldier either. 'But good luck to you anyway,' The soldier waved a hand almost in exasperation and began the sprint back to the ship.

'Your ship should be somewhere on the south side, right?' Neil piped up, straining his eyes to try and find the Black Boa. There were heaps of wreckage all over the place, filling the hangar with smoke and making it considerably difficult to see anything too far away. Aki nodded vaguely, her eyes still on the transport. It hadn't moved, even though it looked more than prepped for take-off. That struck her as odd, but a sudden scream of anger soon told her why.

'They've got no chance,' she murmured, taking a reflexive step forwards. 'It's a gamma,' Gammas were the largest and slowest class of phantoms; huge insectoid creatures with masses of deadly tentacles. Urban myth had it that it had only taken one gamma to destroy ten percent of the force sent to the Tucson battle. It usually took several highly trained squads to dispose of one – and even that was touch and go. An unarmed transport stood no chance.

'We have to – ' she started, trailing off as Gray put a hand on her shoulder.

'We can't help them now,' He was right; the meta had taken several swipes at the body of the ship, no doubt killing everyone inside.

'Shouldn't we get out of here, y'know, before it spots us?' Neil said, already walking off. Aki gave another dull nod, that empty numbness swallowing her again. She lived in a world where fallen cities were not uncommon, but she had never imagined it could be this bad. But she shouldn't dwell on those who had been lost; she had to get out so she could stop this from happening again. She turned her back on the fallen transport and nodded again, a little firmer now.

'Yeah,' she said, unable to hide the hollow ring to her voice. She glanced up at the row of ships still left in the hangar and spotted a familiar hull.

'I can see my ship from here. Let's go,'

Hein wasn't sure how he had gotten out of the city, let alone managed to get into space. How had he even got away from the phantom? He thought he had shot it, frightened it away, but as he stared blankly at the gun he could see that there were no bullets missing. How had he escaped? How had he evaded the hordes of phantoms as he staggered to the ship; barely able to keep himself upright? Why hadn't they taken advantage of his injury? Why had they just stood and stared at him, never making a move to take his life? He didn't know, and that scared him. He couldn't focus on what had happened after the generator had exploded. The time between then and now had passed in a swirl of pain and confusion; icy cold and warm blood combining to dull his senses. His arm had been so cold; so freezing cold, but that had soon faded to just a muted ache after a few minutes. What worried him most was that he could feel it moving through his body; up his arm and into his chest. He vaguely knew what that meant; the phantom particles inside him were centralising and it wouldn't be long until the pain started. He was done for.

And so, he lay on his back in the escape ship and tried to ignore the million confused thoughts that swarmed through his mind. New York had fallen. It was _his_ fault. Millions of people had died as a result of _his_ actions. He was infected, probably terminally. . . He was going to die, but he should have died back there in the barrier station with his men. Instead, he had run away, leaving them to die. He was the only one to survive, when he was the one who deserved to die. He had sacrificed them all and for what? To become infected and die up here, alone and scared on this solitary ship? He had left them there. . . He was a coward and a murderer. _A murderer. . . A mass murderer. . ._

He let out a choked gasp and rolled over onto his side, squeezing his eyes closed to try and force out all the images that floated before him. A thousand feelings hit him at the same time, adding to that sense of nausea that had settled in his stomach. He couldn't even distinguish between them all; he couldn't have named them all if his life depended on it. But he was afraid; that much he knew. He was so terrified of what was going to happen. Only his senses, dulled by shock and injury, kept that fear from consuming him completely. He was angry at himself for doing something so stupid. _What was I thinking?_ And then there was the ball of guilt that was slowly growing in his throat. It was his fault; if not for him then the citizens of New York would still be alive and well. He was responsible for their deaths. _I'm no better than the phantoms. . . I killed innocent people, just like they do. . ._ That was the worst thought; that he was just like they were. How could this have happened? How could he have turned into the one thing he hated more than anything else? He was just like them.

_(You are one of us.)_

He had nothing; nothing left. There wasn't even that thirst for vengeance anymore. Revenge was not sweet when you realised you had just murdered millions of the very people you were trying to save. If this was what it felt like, then he didn't want his revenge now; he had no goal. What was left of his life was useless.

A faint beeping tore through the pain, making him look up as best he could. The autopilot. It had brought him into space, safe from the phantoms, but where to now? He couldn't go back down to earth; he couldn't own up about what he had done. So would he float through space for evermore, letting his guilt and pain destroy him? Or would he try to do something; anything? _What can I do now. . ? I'm nothing. . ._ He closed his eyes in defeat. He had his pride, but he knew he couldn't do anything; he was nothing more than a ghost just waiting to die. He would stay here and make sure he couldn't hurt anyone else. There was nothing he could. . .

_(Destroy them.)_

Hein reopened his eyes as he heard that, a voice not quite inside his own head yet not quite outside. He frowned, unsure of whether he himself had just spoken out-loud. He realised now that his head was fuzzy, slightly chaotic. It was as if someone had wrapped his whole head in cotton wool in an attempt to shield him from the outside world. One thing was certain; he couldn't think straight. Maybe it was the fact he hit his head in the escape. _At least, I think I hit my head,_ he thought, reaching one hand up to gingerly feel for the broken flesh he was so sure was there. His fingers were soon coated in warm blood, a strangely comforting sight. He wasn't going crazy then, but maybe this voice had a point. He couldn't think of any argument against it; the logic was so infallible. There was one thing he could still do before he was consumed by the phantom within him.

_(You can make it right again.)_

He could rectify his mistake; he wouldn't be able to revive anyone, but he could make sure that they hadn't died in vain.

A new sense of calm washed over him as he reached to type four letters into the autopilot; his fingers trembling more than he wanted to admit. He had dropped the barrier for a purpose, and now he had to fulfil that purpose before he died. If not for himself, then for those he had killed.

It didn't take long for Aki to find her ship and discover that it was in a much better state than she had expected.

'It looks good, doc,' Neil mused, shouldering his rifle. 'Wonder why no-one tried to swipe it already,' Aki frowned slightly.

'I was wondering the same thing,' she said thoughtfully, tapping on the control panel just in front of her. It told her that no-one had tried tampering with it; to try and crack the security codes required to start the ship.

'No-one even tried it,' she said slowly, typing in the correct codes and frowning. Her ship was one of the largest and better equipped ones in the hangar; surely it would have seemed like a decent craft for someone to take and escape in. Cracking the codes wasn't all that hard; she had no doubt someone like Neil could do it in a matter of moments.

'All the better for us,' Gray said tersely. 'I think now's the time for us to leave,' Aki nodded, opening the hatch of the Boa. She had just taken her first step towards the ship when she was pushed out of the way and onto the ground. She glared up, ready to yell at whoever had decided to do that, but never quite got there. Now she could see the reason why no-one had chosen to take her ship. There was a group of phantoms stood on the roof, and more appearing. But they weren't attacking; they were strangely inattentive. They were just staring up at the sky, as if they longed to go up there themselves.

'Any ideas how to get rid of them?' Gray whispered; his voice almost drowned out by the distant cry of the gamma behind them. 'Something quick might be good,'

'We'll fight them,' Ryan continued. 'But it might take us some time to get shot of them all. And by then. . .' The gamma cried out again, reminding them all of what would happen if they weren't quick. Aki shot Sid a sideways glance. There was something she could try, but she had only ever done it once before. And back then it had almost killed her.

'I. . .' she said, looking to her mentor for help.

'It's your decision, Aki,' he replied quietly, as if he knew what her decision was going to be. Aki nodded. Like she had told herself in the council meeting, there was no point in hiding it all anymore

'It'll take a little time,' she warned, moving away from the ship. 'Distract them,' Gray opened his mouth to speak, raising a confused eyebrow as Aki closed her eyes and stood there; her hands clasped together.

'What. . .?' he said, looking towards Sid, who was watching Aki intently.

'I'd do as she says, captain. The last time she did this, the phantoms almost got her before she was finished. They tend to be drawn to this,' Indeed, the phantoms were already taking notice of them, peering down at them as if they'd only just noticed the humans stood there. One of them leapt down from the ship, snarling silently at Aki, which was when Gray snapped into action.

'Jane, Neil; you get the ones on the roof. Ryan and I'll keep them occupied on the ground,' There were a series of replies, and the Deep Eyes began their attack, all the while wondering what Aki was doing.


	10. Hidden Talents

Hein could feel his chest starting to throb uncomfortably as his ship docked with Zeus, but he did his best to hide it as he floated past the line of troops that greeted him. The last thing he needed now was to be quarantined.

'Sir,' the last soldier in the line said, saluting. 'The New York council got in touch with us as soon as they reached Atlanta. They want to speak with you as soon as possible,' Hein nodded, hiding the sneer. So, he wasn't the only survivor; the council had ever so bravely run away as well. At least he had taken an injury; they'd probably been well away before the first death.

'I'll speak with them now,' he replied, ignoring a stab of pain from his chest. The soldier nodded and led him to the control room, already buzzing with activity as the techs prepped the cannon for firing. Hein took a moment to just watch the main screen; the earth floating slowly before him. It was missing a few million inhabitants now, and that was his fault. He suddenly wondered if doctor Ross and her entourage had managed to get out, or whether they had died still locked in the cells. _At least they can't argue with me now,_ It was a hollow victory and a nauseating one at that, he realised as he took a seat. Almost immediately, a communication screen popped up in front of him; Drake's strained face floating in mid-air.

'General Hein, I'm relieved you made it out alive,' Drake said, prompting Hein to nod.

'And I'm glad to see the council all got out to Atlanta,' he lied, allowing his face to twist into a nonchalant frown. 'Just a shame no-one else did,' Drake decided not to respond to that, instead shaking his head.

'A terrible loss was suffered tonight, and as such we have reviewed your proposal to fire the Zeus cannon,' Hein felt a muted sense of victory shoot through him, though it was quickly dampened by sharp shot of pain.

'Oh?' was all he managed to say without letting on just how much he was hurting. Drake nodded.

'We're sending the clearance codes now. The phantoms must be stopped before another tragedy like tonight can occur. This all ends here,' Hein scowled ever so slightly. _Why didn't you say that after San Francisco? Wasn't that tragic enough for you?_ he thought bitterly.

_(They did not care. They do not care.)_

Hein blinked; the sudden movement the only sign of his shock as that voice whispered through his mind again. His head swam suddenly, almost forcing him to lose his balance. His thoughts grew vague; dizzy. The voice was the only thing that seemed to make sense. But, no. Not now. He couldn't stop now.

_(It is almost time.)_

He couldn't let them stop him now. He cared about the losses, even if they didn't. He collected himself, ignoring the suspicious frown he was receiving from Drake.

'Something wrong, general?' the councillor asked, obviously wary.

_(Nothing is wrong.)_

Hein shook his head, a customary smirk settling on his face; masking the pain that flared up. Why let Drake know what had happened?

'Of course not, councillor. Just a little space sickness,' Little white lies never hurt anyone. The older man was not convinced, but he knew he had no choice.

'If you're sure,' Hein nodded.

'I'm sure. And I assure you, the phantoms will be stopped,' Drake didn't look quite so confident.

_(They do not trust you.)_

'Good luck,' he said, before cutting the transmission. Hein stared at the blank screen for a moment. This was it; the moment of his vengeance was so near. Everything he had been working towards for the last seven years was so close to being completed. So why did he feel so hollow inside; why wasn't he happy about this? Why didn't he feel satisfied?

_(This is not your purpose.)_

'Ready the cannon for firing,' he said to the nearest tech, suddenly aware that his chest was icy cold; totally numb, and the throbbing in his head was growing louder and louder; masking all the other sounds around him. Only that voice rang clearly. Something was wrong here;

_(Nothing is wrong.)_

the ice was slowly creeping, spreading throughout his body.

_(Do not fight.)_

It was all he could do to keep his expression neutral as he stood,

_(Come to us.)_

rather uncomfortably.

'Inform me when it's ready,' he said, turning and pressing a hand to his chest. Not now.

_(Now.)_

Not when he was so close. 'I'll be in my quarters,' The tech nodded, preoccupied with his work. No-one noticed as Hein crept out; a hand crushed to his chest and an expression of sheer terror on his face.

_(You are ours.)_

'This is taking too long,' Ryan muttered as another alpha leapt at him, tendrils aimed at his throat. He grabbed the arm of his attacker and threw it to the side, watching as it collided with another phantom.

'Where're they all coming from? Are we stood on top of a nest or something?' Neil exclaimed. Well, he had a point. Every time they got rid of one wave of phantoms, a new one would replace it. It was like there was a limitless supply of phantoms and they were fighting right at the source. Gray knew he and his soldiers couldn't keep this up for much longer. He himself was exhausted; he could only imagine how the others were feeling. He just saw Jane stumble out of the corner of his eye, remembering what the techs had told them all on the day of her infection. Magic drained the energy of a person intensely, unless they had mastered it. Jane might be a natural with her powers, but she was still only a novice; each burst of flame or ice took more and more out of her. It sapped her more than she wanted to admit, even just to herself.

'Jane, you alright?' he asked, swiping the nearest phantom out of his way and running to her. He caught her just in time, stopping her from sliding to the ground.

'I'm just a little tired, captain,' she said, her tone betraying her weariness as she leant on him for support. 'I can go on,'

'No you can't,' Gray replied firmly, taking the moment to check on the others. The tide of phantoms seemed to have diminished for the moment, only a couple still causing trouble. The rest were keeping back, as if they were wary of something. The gamma was still heading towards them though, and his troops were tired. Neil had run out of ammo long ago and had taken to using makeshift bombs he had made out of used ova-packs. Ryan looked as if he didn't have enough strength left to harm an insect, and Jane was ready to collapse. Gray himself felt so weary, almost to the extent where he couldn't lift his sword from the ground anymore. _Hurry it up, Aki,_ he thought, glancing towards her. She was stood completely still, her eyes closed as she whispered something under her breath. He couldn't even imagine what she was doing.

'Captain,' Gray span towards the ship, frowning slightly as he saw Sid stood inside, waving them all towards him. _We're stuck in the middle of a battlefield, and he decides to go walkabout?_ he thought incredulously. Well, if the last few days had taught him anything, it was that scientists were far more suicidal than they let on.

'We still have to protect Aki,' he argued, though he felt he could barely protect himself right now, let alone her. Sid shook his head, his eyes taking on an expression that made Gray uneasy.

'You and your men have to get undercover now, before she finishes,' Gray opened his mouth to reply, turning to face Aki. The words never came. She was still stood as still as she had been, but she was now surrounded by a cool blue glow that rippled and pulsed as she continued to murmur. She had her palms outstretched before her now, and it was here that the glow seemed to be coming from; erupting from her fingertips before spreading to cover her whole body.

'What the. . .?' he whispered, transfixed. This was more than just magic; this was so much more.

'Captain!' Sid hissed. Gray snapped his gaze away from Aki and began to run towards the ship, though not as fast as he would like. Try as she might, Jane couldn't seem to pick her feet off the floor properly; her eyelids were drooping even as he dragged her to safety.

He didn't even see the phantom until it was almost on top of them; shooting out of the floor several feet to his left and sprinting at him. Gray turned towards it, desperate to get between it and Jane. He had already let her get infected once, and he was damned if he was going to let her suffer like that again. The phantom snarled silently, before leaping at them; tentacles already outstretched. Gray reflexively closed his eyes. At least he was going to die in battle.

The stab of icy cold never came, prompting Gray to open his eyes and gasp loudly. The phantom had stopped mid-leap; tendrils inches away from his chest. All around him, the other phantoms were in a similar state; completely still and unable to move as if they were frozen in time. The blue glow around Aki was now fierce; spiking harshly in pulses as she opened her eyes; which were glowing the same cool, fierce blue as the aura around her. Realising that now was a good time to get to the ship, Gray picked up Jane and ran.

He reached the hatch and turned back, eager to see what was going to happen. He wasn't the only one; even Jane had managed to stay awake long enough to stare in trepidation. At first it appeared as though there was nothing; the entire hangar was silent and completely still. Gray suddenly realised that everything around him had become muffled and blurred around the edges; he couldn't hear his heart, though he knew it was pounding desperately. It was as if time itself was slowing down.

Suddenly, there was a thunderous noise and the actual air behind Aki began to rip apart - tearing as easily as paper – to reveal a dark, empty void that seemed to contain nothing at all. Gray stared at the abyss as it widened and lengthened before his very eyes, seemingly acting under its own influence. And then. . .

'My god. . .' he whispered. Something stepped out of the cavity; something that could only be described as a monster. It looked like the phantoms did after they had passed through bioetheric energy; its scales and veins and pores glowing a pale blue colour. In fact, he could have sworn it _was_ a phantom; some kind of invader he had never laid eyes on before. It looked like a dragon; tall and scaly with a long, lashing tail and two huge wings that seemed to spread forever. It towered over Aki as it stepped in front of her; sunken eyes surveying everything that lay before it with contempt. It fixed its gaze on the gamma and snarled silently, nostrils smoking slightly as it looked down at Aki. Understanding came to it, and it leapt into the air; huge wings unfurling and beating to take it higher and higher. Gray wasn't able to tear his gaze away as an aura appeared around the dragon; the same colour and consistency as the one around Aki. If he had taken a look at the scientist, he would have noticed that the glow around her was diminishing, lessening in power as the one around the dragon grew stronger and stronger. The energy began to pool near its mouth, gathering into a huge, crackling ball of light; so bright it hurt Gray's eyes to look at it. A silent roar, and suddenly the ball was hurtling down to earth, still growing bigger and brighter; bathing everything in an unnatural blue glow.

Gut instinct made him turn away as the ball hit the ground; the crash of explosions near-deafening him and the blindingly bright glow still hurting him through his tightly closed eyes. A thought suddenly hit him. _Aki!_

The noise suddenly stopped - as if someone had flicked a switch and muted it all – and the glow disappeared. Gray turned, gingerly opening his eyes and gasping as he saw that it had all disappeared; the dragon, the rip, the phantoms. But most of the hangar was missing as well, leaving a smoking pile of rubble dimly illuminated in the moonlight. All that remained was an exhausted Aki, who had already sunk to her knees. The pale glow around her was fading and disappearing now before his very eyes, leaving him to gape at her. A stunned silence hung in the air, broken only as Sid jogged across to Aki, holding her upright.

'Did we just see. . .?' Neil asked, slightly unsure of what had just happened.

'I think so. . .' Jane replied, the weariness in her voice replaced by stunned shock for the moment. Ryan couldn't even manage words and just stared at Aki – as Gray did – as a concerned-looking Sid helped her to the ship. Gray helped them both on board, still staring incredulously as she smiled weakly at him.

'You look like you've had a shock,' she joked softly.

'What _was_ that?' Gray gasped, earning a frown from Sid.

'We'll have time to talk about that later. Aki needs to rest, captain, and we need to get out of here,' Gray nodded a little, only years of taking orders making him do as Sid said.

'Neil,' he started. 'You can fly this, right?'

'They haven't invented anything I _can't_ fly, sir,' Neil boasted, earning a gentle punch from Jane.

'Show-off,' she mumbled, leaning against the nearest wall.

'You get us in the air then. We'll head to Trenton, it's the closest city I can think of,' Neil nodded and, after casting a final amazed look at Aki, jogged into the cockpit. Gray then turned his attention to Ryan and Jane, both of whom looked ready to drop dead.

'Haven't had to fight like that since that cleansing mission in Washington,' Ryan said.

'I hate magic,' Jane muttered.

'You two rest,' Gray told them. 'You've earned it,' They nodded gladly, which left only one person. Aki. He turned towards her, ready to ask her about what had just happened, but he never got there. She was already asleep.


	11. Seduced by the Enemy

If it had been any other day, the darkness would have comforted him; hidden him from the problems and thoughts that screamed through his mind. But not today; today nothing could take his attention away from the pain. The ice was still spreading through him, emanating from that single writhing, searing ball of fire in his chest. He couldn't escape from it, not like doctor Ross had. He didn't have some miracle cure just waiting for him. _Hah,_ To think that he had once despised her for trying to escape from death like this. To think that he still despised her for having that means of escape. She had her spirit waves and her science. He had nothing. He was alone; he had nothing but that voice in his head.

_(Do not struggle.)_

Every time it spoke, the searing ball released a new wave of pain, making him curl up in front of his desk, doing his best not to cry out.

_(It will all be over soon.)_

So this was what happened to them; the poor souls who were infected. They weren't allowed to die in peace, but were taunted and tormented by the parasite within them before dying in agony as their nervous systems turned on them. He had never imagined that this would be how he would die. He had never wanted to die like this; so helpless and unable to do anything. He wanted to escape it; so desperately. He didn't want to die.

_(You won't die.)_

Hein paused, the pain subsiding for a second. What did _that _mean? He was infected; it was inevitable that he would die. And the quicker it happened, the better. He didn't want to spend the last few minutes of his life being taunted by his own failure.

_(We will save you and then you shall save us.)_

Hein almost replied, until he realised that talking back to a disembodied voice in your head was not the sane thing to do. This meant the delirium had set in and it wouldn't be long until. . . _No! I'm not going to die like this!_ He crushed his hands to his ears and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to keep the voice out. If he could stop the voice, maybe he could hide from the inevitable for a little while longer.

_(You cannot escape us.)_

'Get out of my head!' Hein snarled through gritted teeth.

_(We are one now. We cannot leave you.)_

Hein growled and rolled over, feeling the ice spreading down his arms to his fingertips. If that cold reached his head, he wouldn't stand a chance. But he couldn't think with this voice talking to him. He couldn't think of a way to stop his death. He didn't want to die; not here, not now and not like this.

_(You fear death.)_

'Who doesn't?' he muttered, unable to resist replying. There was something about it; something so familiar. He might have been terrified of death, but that voice made him ever so slightly curious. And he couldn't ignore that any longer.

_(But it is inevitable. You cannot escape it alone.)_

'If it's inevitable,' Hein said, suddenly aware that the pain had ceased for the moment. The ice; it didn't hurt anymore. He could only dread what this meant. 'Then you can't escape it at all,'

_(We can help you escape it.)_

'I'd rather die than take help from you. . .' he said. He wouldn't take anything from a phantom; from the murderers of his family.

_(We can stop the pain and the suffering. Isn't that what you want?)_

Hein blinked slowly, rolling over onto his back and staring at the darkened ceiling. Yes, that's what he wanted to do. Not just to stop his own pain and suffering, but to stop others from having to go through what he did. The people deserved peace, not pain. They didn't need to suffer. They had suffered for too long.

'Yes. . .' he said. The ice was making him sleepy. Everything around him felt so slow and blurred, as if his senses had been dulled to the point of uselessness. _Not long now. . ._ he thought lazily. Death wasn't as painful as he imagined it would be.

_(You have watched this war all your life. You know that fighting is useless. If we continue to fight, we shall be destroyed; both your people and ours.)_

What was the point of all the destruction? Why did everyone struggle against that which they could not fight? Why did he struggle against death; why didn't he want it? It would so easily stop all the pain. Why did everything want to survive; to force themselves into suffering? Why couldn't they just give into the inevitable and find peace that way?

_(You can stop the pain. You can help us end it.)_

'End it. . .?' he asked, darkness swimming through his vision. That cool, lazy ice had reached his neck now. Nothing existed but that; the cold and the voice.

_(You can free them all. No-one will suffer; you can end that. You can end it all.)_

'How?' He couldn't see anything but their logic staring him right in the face. This war just resulted in unnecessary suffering for everyone. If he ended the war, then the suffering would end; they all knew that. He had already tried, and failed, to destroy the phantoms and win the war that way. They were stronger; there was no way he could destroy them. But he could still end it. He could destroy the weaker side, and end the war that way.

_(Join us.)_

To join them would be to end suffering. But it would be betraying everyone he'd ever loved; everything he'd ever fought for. He had lost everything to the phantoms. To join them would be to destroy the memory of all he had lost.

'I can't. . .' he said, the darkness almost consuming him. The ice was creeping up his neck, almost to his mind. He couldn't betray them. He couldn't. . .

_(You did not lose them. They were freed from the pain and suffering.)_

'Freed?' White light exploded around him; so bright that it should have blinded him. It took his dazed senses a long time to see through the hazy white, to see those two faces smiling back at him. He suddenly understood as he reached out his hands; fingers stretching vainly to brush against theirs. He could feel it, feel their peace. There was no pain where they were. There was no suffering. There was no hurt or fear or anger. Only peaceful bliss. And they would want him to give it to everyone else; to stop all the endless suffering in the world. They wanted him to do what was best for everyone. It all made so much sense now. . . Something within the cold made sense.

_(Don't the rest of your people deserve that?)_

Yes, they did. No-one had to hurt anymore. He couldn't let them hurt anymore. He could end it all; he could be the saviour for mankind. They would thank him one day; thank him for setting them free.

_(Then you are ours.)_

The ice suddenly shot up – pulsing through his entire body now – and the pain returned. Hein barely had time to scream before everything went black.

Gray couldn't help but worry slightly as Aki stirred violently in her sleep. She had been doing this for some time now, as if fighting against a dream. He had already told Sid about it, but the old man had said it was normal. After expending so much energy summoning the monster, she was fully susceptible to everything. The phantom within her could probably sense this weakness, and was taking advantage. But she would be fine, Sid said. After all, it's only a dream.

But Gray couldn't stop worrying as he sat there, smoothing her hair out of her face as she stirred again. This looked to be much more than a nightmare. She was struggling so much; trying to stop something but failing. He could only wonder what.

Hein awoke with a start to find himself lay flat out on a cracked, dusty patch of earth. Searing heat beat down on him and arid air hurt his lungs as he took a deep breath and pulled himself to his feet. This place; he had seen it before somewhere. He used to dream about it, back when he lost his father to the phantoms; and then again, years later after the Fall of San Francisco. This place; this dead desert, it always made him feel better; as if he belonged somewhere. But what was he doing here now? Was he dead; was that why he had been brought here? He turned around and around, seeing nothing but the dirty red earth, and the harsh bright light of the sun. Where was his freedom? Where was the bliss he had been promised?

He turned again and suddenly found himself staring; unable to move or think or even breathe. It wasn't the vicious phantom he had been expecting, but a face he hadn't seen in seven long, painful years; a face he had dreamed about for so long. The one person he missed more than anything. He couldn't speak; he didn't want to, for fear that any sound might break this fragile illusion. She couldn't be here; he couldn't be staring into the soft azure eyes of his wife. It just couldn't be. She smiled so gently at him, her eyes betraying what she felt; reminding him of what he felt.

'I. . .' he started, unable to go on as a million thoughts and feelings overwhelmed him, inky black swimming through his hazy vision. Only one thing was clear through the murky mist; only one thing. That was when he realised. He knew what he had to do now; what she wanted him to do. He had to do this for her; no matter how much it hurt. She would be waiting for him at the end, and for that, he was willing to do anything. It didn't matter how much it hurt, as long as she was there for him at the end of it. He looked up again, and saw her smile.

_(I know how frightened you are.)_

She had always known. She was always able to find out what was wrong, and make it better.

_(But you have to be strong. So no-one has to be scared anymore.)_

She was right; of course she was. He had never been able to argue with her, and there was never much point anyway. She was always right – in his eyes anyway. He couldn't deny her this. He had to do what she wanted. So he stepped forwards, collapsing into her arms; finally feeling something close to peace. He realised now how much it had hurt; how much it still did. He hadn't been looking for vengeance all this time. He was looking for a way back to her.

He closed his eyes, relaxing into her embrace as it tightened around him. He wouldn't be hurt anymore. No-one would hurt anymore. She was going to save him, and then he was going to save them.

He was going to save them all.

The embrace of the phantom tightened around her; an alien hand fixing firmly on her head. She tried to struggle as the tendrils began to extend, forcing their way into her mind and body. She could feel it invading; invading in a way that she had never imagined. She could feel it taking over. _No!_ She didn't want to be one of them. She didn't want to join them and be responsible for so much death. She didn't want to, but she couldn't stop it. No matter how much she struggled; how much she cried out, she couldn't stop it. She couldn't stop anything. It was going to destroy her and then she was going to destroy them.

She was going to destroy them all.

Time passed so slowly; it felt as if an eternity had gone by before he opened his eyes and found himself staring at the ceiling again. He took a moment to inhale deeply, feeling that knot of phantom particles still pulsing within him. It was still spreading through him, but it was no longer attacking and he was no longer resisting. They were one now, and it felt more natural than anything Hein had ever experienced before. She was with him now; she'd never leave him alone again.

He stood up, not bothering to dust himself off, and moved to stare out of the large window behind the desk. That empty void of anger within him had been filled now, like the final piece of a puzzle had been dropped into place. This was his purpose; to bring peace and bliss to the people of earth. They would struggle of course; it was their nature to. He would have to hurt them at first, but soon they would realise and they would give into the happiness they deserved. And the phantoms would be happy too; beyond happy. He was going to give them something they hadn't had in millennia.

Yes, he would be the one to bring salvation to both races. He would use the very weapon designed to destroy them to bring them peace. It would be so perfect.

There was a sudden knock at the door, restrained yet urgent. Hein didn't respond, instead choosing to gaze down at the earth. A battlefield for now, but soon it would all be at peace. The soldier outside the room took the initiative and opened the door, stepping inside.

'General Hein?' he asked nervously, almost not seeing the dark figure by the window. 'We're ready to fire the cannon now, sir,' Hein gave no response, and a heavy silence hung in the air, further unnerving the young private. The general had been acting a little odd before, and this just sealed it. The way he was just stood there; seemingly oblivious to everything around him. Something was wrong. He took an edgy step forwards.

'Are you alright, sir?'

_(They will try to stop us.)_

Hein let out a low chuckle, turning slowly to face the other soldier. The private gasped, forgetting etiquette, as Hein began to walk towards him.

_(So we must stop them.)_

'S-sir! Y-your eyes, sir,' The private faltered, transfixed by those eyes as Hein reached him, a smooth smile on his face. The soldier was so shocked by disbelief that he didn't notice Hein raising his right hand towards him.

'You forgot to salute, private,' Hein whispered, grabbing the young man's forehead.

_(Stop them to free them.)_

The last thing the soldier felt was the sensation of his spirit being sucked out of his grasp, spiralling into the body of the man before him. The private let out a mangled moan and then crumpled lifelessly to the floor.

_(Free them to save them.)_

A thousand miles away, Aki awoke with a muffled scream. That soldier; his spirit. The feeling of it moving up her arm into her body. The sensation of complete power as the soldier collapsed in her grasp.

The knowledge that, like the conversation with the phantoms, this was so much more than just a dream.

Hands grabbed her shoulders, pulling her towards something. No, they couldn't touch her. If they touched her, she would kill them.

'No!' she yelled, pushing them away and curling up on the far side of the bunk. 'I won't do it! I won't join you!'

'Aki, what are you -- ?' _Gray. . ._ Suddenly she realised. She wasn't stood over the body of an innocent solider, deep in the blackness. She wasn't trapped in the darkness, about to give into the enemy. She wasn't one of them. But it had felt so very real; the pain, the suffering. That sense of helplessness; desperately grasping for any means to escape death. She had believed it was her; that she had given in to them. But no. It was just a. . .

'Gray. . .' She collapsed into his arms, so glad that he was there watching over her. Nothing could hurt her when he was with her; not even her own dreams. But nothing had frightened her more than that sensation; the feeling as she took another person's life. Deep curiosity at first, slowly turning into a profound satisfaction as she freed that poor soldier from his suffering. But now she knew it wasn't her, and she was certain it wasn't just a dream. She could only wonder – and worry – who it had been. Who had given in.


	12. After the Fall

'This is going to take forever. . .'

Jane couldn't help but agree as Ryan spoke, his flat tone betraying what he felt. Hell, he was right after all. They had landed in Trenton about an hour ago, and gone straight to the medical centre. Gray had insisted that they all get checked out; Ryan and Jane especially. What he seemed to have conveniently forgotten was that pretty much everyone who had escaped New York would have come here, and every single one of them would want to be seen by a medic as well. What made everything worse was that – with the effects of magic upon the body still relatively unknown and unexplored – Jane had to see a specialist medic; one that she had just been informed wouldn't be able to see her for another four hours at least.

'Look on the bright side,' Neil said, not looking up from some small piece of equipment he was fiddling with. 'At least we're not fighting phantoms, right?' Jane nodded vaguely, settling back in her seat and scowling. She hated waiting around; she always had. It seemed like such a waste of time. She was fine anyway; she had insisted this time and time again to Gray, but would he listen? Of course not. He had ordered her – directly – to come here and wait in line like everyone else while he stayed back at the ship and kept an eye on Aki. Speaking of whom. . .

'There was something odd about doctor Ross today, wasn't there?' she mused out-loud. Ryan shrugged; Neil didn't even move.

'I dunno,' Ryan said. 'I think there was something odder about the captain. He was acting. . . well. . .'

'Odd?' Neil chipped in, earning a smirk from Ryan.

'Well, yeah. He was edgy; didn't want to let doctor Ross out of his sight,' Jane blew out a sigh.

'But why? I mean, sure she called that. . . thing, but I can't see why that would worry him. We've seen weirder stuff in our time,'

'The whole of last week was weird enough,' Neil said absent-mindedly, tip of his tongue stuck out in a gesture of concentration. 'Anything past that is just not worth worrying about,'

'Exactly,' Jane said, ignoring the urge to ask what Neil was doing. He had pilfered the seemingly dead gadget from somewhere or other while she hadn't been looking and had been messing with it ever since. Not that she minded; it kept him quiet at least. 'Something must have happened to make him so anxious,'

'He likes her more than he wants to admit,' Ryan said, smiling slightly. 'But you know him. Won't say a word about it if there's something more important to do,' Jane snorted.

'And here I was thinking he'd signed up for the assignment in the hope he could get with her again,' She shook her head. 'Men,'

'Do you have something against all of mankind,' Neil asked jokingly. 'Or is it just the men you know?'

'Just you, Neil,' she retorted. 'The rest I can stand,' Neil looked up for a moment and grinned.

'Well, whaddya know? I _am_ special after all,' Jane rolled her eyes, shaking her head and casting her gaze around the makeshift waiting room again. With the hospitals pretty much snowed under with refugees, the Trenton authorities had been pushed into expanding their medical facilities, using anyone with medical training to help out. They were currently sat in what had used to be a weapons store; one of the largest buildings in the city, and also quite far from the centre of population. They all knew that there would be some infection cases that couldn't be contained, and the authorities were doing all they could to keep the risk to the general populace as low as possible. There were about thirty small tents set up on the far side of the room, which was where they needed to get to before they could be seen. All around them were several hundred people; mostly soldiers with some civilians thrown in, all of whom looked so much worse than Jane felt.

'We don't need to be here,' she muttered. 'We're fine,'

'Better to be safe than sorry, though,' Ryan said. 'I mean, think about it. What if the captain didn't make us get scanned after each mission?' Jane scowled ever so slightly, remaining quiet. Yeah, so it _was_ better to be safe than sorry, but this was ridiculous. They could be out there doing something useful – helping with the construction of the temporary housing, or patrolling the perimeter or something. Sitting around here just made her feel completely useless, and if there was one thing Jane hated, it was feeling useless.

'I suppose,' she murmured, folding her arms across her chest. Beside her, Neil suddenly winced as the gadget sparked at him, and Jane could no longer contain her curiosity. 'Neil. What are you doing?' Neil looked up suddenly, a smile crossing his face.

'You know me; I'm like a kid. If you're gonna have me waiting for hours, you need to give me something to play with,' Ryan smirked.

'But we _didn't_ give you something to play with,' He gestured to what Neil was holding. 'What is that and where'd you swipe it from?' Neil's face grew innocent.

'Moi? Swipe?' Jane tried not to look amused; trust him to keep them all occupied.

'Like you said; we know you. Where'd you get it?' Neil couldn't hold the grin.

'Ah, he won't miss it. He'll be too tied up with worrying about doctor Ross, y'know?' Jane shook her head again.

'I thought he warned you about taking things from him, after last time,' Neil shrugged impishly, looking back down at the device.

'He did. Doesn't mean I'm going to pay attention. Besides, I bet he doesn't even realise it's gone,' Jane often wondered whether the powers that be had made a good decision when they decided to train Neil as a Thief. The skills – which involved computer hacking, lock picking, and general pickpocketing – were dangerous enough in the hands of a completely sane individual. When given to someone as mischievous as Neil. . . Well, you can imagine the carnage he managed to inflict during training. She still couldn't see how he had avoided being expelled. Of course, he was good at what he did; it was just the way he did it and the reasons why he did it that were a little suspect.

'You'd better make sure he gets it back,' Ryan said, leaning back in his seat. 'And I hope it's not something as important as the power converter for his sword,' Neil tried to look innocent again.

'No-one ever managed to prove that it was me who took that. And how was I supposed to know that we were going to have a full inspection that day anyway?' Jane smiled. Though she professed to dislike him at times, there was no-one who could cheer her up like Neil. She wasn't sure whether that was something they had taught him at the academy. _Though I imagine if it was, then he would have found a way to cause trouble with it by now,_ she thought, watching the tent closest to them. Ah, he wasn't so bad. Most of the time. 'Besides, it's only his comm to us. How can he miss it?'

'Just as long as you've never taken anything of mine,' Neil coughed nervously and looked back down at the gadget in his hands.

'Why would I do that?' Jane noted the hint of unease in his voice and turned to glare at him.

'Neil. . .'

Aki yawned, trying her best to stifle it so that Gray wouldn't notice it. After the nightmare, as she was now calling it, she hadn't dared try going back to sleep; every time she had even closed her eyes, those images and sensations had rushed upon her like waves. So, she had stayed right where she was, just cradled in Gray's arms. They hadn't said much; she didn't trust herself not to blurt out what she had just dreamed, and he seemed to pick up on her urge not to talk. Sure, he could tell she was uneasy, but he hadn't pried, just as she hoped he wouldn't. He knew her too well to try making her talk. Back then, he had always tried to make her discuss her problems; always wanted her to talk to him. She hadn't thought it possible, but maybe he had grown up a little.

Another yawn crept up on her, making her put down what she was working on and stifle it physically. She was secretly hoping that Sid would hurry up and come back, so she would have something more interesting to do than endlessly check and recheck the condition of her ship. She couldn't see that anything would be wrong with it; true, it had been forced to remain outside of Trenton for a good few hours while they waited for landing clearance, but apart from that it was fine. She personally would have left it, and tried to put her mind on something more absorbing, but Sid had insisted before disappearing off to find the Trenton council. They had no doubt that the New York council would have approved the use of Zeus after the fall of the city, and it was imperative that they get to work on finding the rest of the spirits before the earth was harmed too much. He was hoping that the Trenton council would give up some lab space, but he wasn't too optimistic; after all, this was a small city, and not renowned for its research facilities. But he had to try, he had said. _I should have told him about the dream before he left,_ she thought, deciding that she was bored of checking the fuel stats for the ship and moving into the cockpit.. _But. . . I couldn't. It was just a silly little thing anyway. He doesn't need to know. I don't need to make him worry more,_ She kept on telling herself that – that it had only been a dream and nothing more – but she couldn't shake that sense of unease. It didn't help that her infection had been playing up; tightening and pulsing and sending stabs of pain through her. And with every twinge came another image; a snapshot of another soldier crumpling to the ground. It was getting more real each time it happened, and she wasn't sure how much longer she could ignore it.

'I think we've checked out the ship more than enough times,' She snapped herself out of her trance and turned as Gray walked into the cockpit, suppressing a yawn of his own. He had stayed up with her, even though they both knew he was exhausted as well. She couldn't help but feel a little touched at the gesture.

'Right now I don't care if something goes wrong,' she replied with a smile. 'If I have to check readouts one more time today, I think I'm going to scream,' Gray smiled; the mere expression quelling some of the tension she was feeling. She knew she had to worry about being so close to him again like this; what if she lost sight of the important things because of her own selfish needs? But every time she looked at him, she saw something that reminded her how it had been; how happy they were. _I must have been insane to leave him like I did,_ she thought. _But it couldn't be helped, right?_ That was what she had been telling herself, but as time went by, she was beginning to feel that she had been wrong.

'You alright?' Gray asked suddenly. This was about the seventeenth time he had asked her that since she had woken up, but she felt grateful for something to take her mind off her thoughts.

'Still a little tired,' she lied. Alright, so she was a _lot_ tired. 'But I'll be fine,' Gray nodded, sitting down in the seat next to hers.

'So, come on then. Tell me about it,' Aki frowned.

'About. . . what?'

'About that. . . Well, what you did yesterday,' He grinned a little. 'You couldn't do that before,' Aki smiled, shrugging.

'What is there to say? It was a Zero, that much was clear I think,' Gray nodded.

'Very,'

'I guess it's something else the phantoms gave me, though no-one's sure why and how it works. We have an explanation and a theory for Mages at least, but Zeros completely confuse everyone. I mean, why me? Why can I do it, and Jane can't?' Gray frowned.

'I thought it was all completely random anyway; every infection is different so every result is different, right?' Aki shook her head slightly.

'Not strictly. I won't bore you with the theories, but basically studies have shown that aggressive people are more likely to become Blackies, and calm people Whities,' She leaned back in her seat, arms folded across her chest. It was quiet for the moment, and that was worrying her somewhat. 'But no-one can find a pattern for Zeros,' Gray gave a slight nod, as if contemplating this.

'What is it? It had the look of a phantom about it, but. . . It was the wrong colour and wasn't any phantom I've ever seen before,'

'No-one's sure,' Aki replied with a sigh. 'Though I'd really love to know. And if anyone can find out a less exhausting way to call them. . .'

'Tiring, huh?' Gray asked, leaning forwards a little, concern etched into those deep brown eyes. Aki had to force herself to look at something other than those eyes; she couldn't let herself become emotional. Not now. 'Doesn't help when you can't sleep either,'

'It was just a nightmare,' she said, looking away from him and pretending to concentrate on a screen before her. 'Nothing sinister,'

'Are you sure?' Gray said quietly. 'Sure didn't seem like "just" a nightmare when you woke up,' Aki turned to frown harshly at him.

'It was nothing,' she said firmly. 'And besides, it's in the past now,' Silence fell between them, and Aki was suddenly reminded of how easy it was to get mad at him. It wasn't as easy these days; after all, he did have a point. She supposed he was just worried about her, but he didn't have to be. It was just a silly little dream, made up by her silly little head as it struggled against her silly little infection.

'That Zero sure was impressive though,' Gray said with a smile, trying to lighten the mood a little. 'Hell of a party trick,' Aki forced herself to chuckle.

'Thank you. I do try,'

'Maybe you try too hard sometimes,' he said thoughtfully. 'I mean, you're doing all of this while infected? That would have beaten most other people by now,' Aki smiled gently.

'I'm not like other people. I don't intend on giving up. I've got a planet to save, remember?' Gray nodded, though he wasn't entirely convinced.

'Maybe you should think of you for a change, instead of always worrying about everyone else,' Aki looked down. That was exactly what she had been thinking for the last few days; ever since he had appeared back in her life. But she couldn't. She just couldn't give up what she was doing; she had to see it through to the end, no matter how much she hurt herself.

'Says the bodyguard,' she murmured, masking the hurt with a veil of a smile. Gray pffed.

'You appreciate me really,' Aki opened her mouth to retort, but didn't quite get there as she caught sight of Sid through the front screen. _He's getting faster at talking councils round to his point of view,_ she thought with a smile. _Either that or they're getting faster at refusing him,_

'You'll have to wait and see,' she said, standing up and moving to leave the cockpit. 'We've got a council to go and see,' Gray nodded, putting a hand to his belt.

'I'll have to tell the Deep Eyes where to fi -- What the…?' Aki frowned.

'What?' Gray's eyes narrowed slightly.

'My comm's missing, and I know exactly who to blame,' He shook his head. 'I'm going to kill him,'


	13. The Second Fall

'Are you sure it was wise giving him the codes?' Drake sighed slowly, putting two fingers to the bridge of his nose. It had been a very hard day; the loss of New York, practically being forced to use Zeus. His current state of mind was not helped by that cloud of doubt that was drifting through his thoughts.

'We had no other choice,' he said, trying to convince himself more than anyone else. Across the room, Hee shook her head.

'I wonder. . . But you saw him; there was something he was trying to hide from us,' Drake moved his fingers and stared steadily across at her.

'I know we had all agreed not to use Zeus while Hein was in charge, but we couldn't just sit back and let New York be sacrificed,' Hee nodded sadly, moving her eyes from him and gazing out of the window to her left.

'I know,' she said softly. 'But who knows what he might do? You know what happened after San Francisco fell -- '

'That's in the past,' Drake said suddenly. 'He was cleared, time and time again,' The past – especially Hein's past – was not the most comfortable of subjects. Hee remained silent, though he knew she wanted to argue further.

'Besides,' Drake admitted, leaning back into his seat. 'There's nothing we can do about it now,' He would be glad when this was all over; when they called to tell him that the Leonid meteor, and all the phantoms with it, had been evaporated. But so far, that call was very long in coming and that was not helping the doubt he was feeling.

No sooner had he thought that then a sudden buzz erupted through the small room. Drake sat himself up and flicked on the desktop communicator.

'Drake here,' The tech who appeared in front of him didn't look happy or joyous. He looked worried; deeply worried.

'Sir, we've just received what appear to be distress calls from the Zeus station,' Drake's eyes narrowed ever so slightly and he looked up to see Hee do the same.

'What do you mean? What kind of distress calls?' They had only just got the thing built. It couldn't be falling apart now.

'They're patchy, sir; hard to make out. But one word they all mention is "phantom".' Drake frowned. That didn't make any sense; the phantoms couldn't get up into space, let alone past the rigid security of the station.

'What?'

'I don't know, sir. We've tried to patch through, but no-one's responding now,' Drake collapsed back in his seat; mind racing. Even though he couldn't understand how, he knew this had something to do with Hein.

'Where is it now?'

'What, sir?'

'Zeus. Where is it now?' The tech paused for a few moments, tapping away at his work station. Then, he frowned.

'It's. . . It's right over us,'

Aki suddenly noted – not for the first time – how exhausted she actually was as she, Gray and Sid walked down the long open passageway leading to the Trenton council chamber. _I probably should have tried to get some sleep while everything was quiet,_ she thought, watching the floor as they walked. _I doubt I'll have much chance after this,_ Sid had explained that he hadn't been able to see the council directly, but had submitted his request for lab space to them, and had to go back to the chamber to hear the reply. He wasn't entirely optimistic, and after seeing part of the city on the walk, Aki wasn't either. Trenton was a small city; nothing compared to the scale of New York. Population in these smaller cities was always a problem; they didn't always have the resources required to expand at a reasonable rate, and as such suffered from severe overcrowding. From what she had seen, Trenton was a victim of this problem, even before the tens of thousands of refugees had started pouring in from New York. Enormous skyscrapers towered over the metallic walkways used to get from one building to another, and she doubted most people had ever seen the ground of the city. It truly was an engineering masterpiece in places; graceful arches used both to support the top-heavy buildings from toppling over and to provide means of getting between the structures. But it had problems; ones that were about to be made much worse. If the city was half as stretched as she feared, there was no way she and Sid were going to be able to procure some extra space from them. Extra space simply would not exist.

'Did you sleep well, Aki?' Sid said suddenly, turning his gaze from the metallic metropolis around him onto her. 'The captain mentioned you were stirring,' Aki's heart dropped for a second; though she hadn't directly told Gray she didn't want Sid to know about the dream, she though he had got the gist. _Though why shouldn't I tell him? It might be important after all. . ._ No matter how much she tried, she couldn't shake the images from her head; she couldn't get rid of the idea that it was more than just a dream. _No. It's a silly idea._ She forced a smile and nodded slightly.

'Like a baby,' she lied.

'Good,' Sid said simply, his tone masking his disbelief. Though he didn't pretend that he was Aki's confidante, he had always thought that she would be able to tell him pretty much anything; they'd known each other far too long and been through too much together for secrets. But she was hiding something; that he could tell. If she had decided to lie to him, then it had to be important.

'Maybe a couple of bad dreams,' Aki said casually, as if it was as simple as that. 'Nothing much,' Gray shot her a glance, but had no time to say anything else as they reached the chamber; a harried official ushering them in quickly. Everyone in Trenton looked stressed and unhappy, Aki had noted, and the head of the council was no different. None of the councillors looked as if they had any energy left; no doubt they had all been working tirelessly through the night to try and sort out the inevitable problems from having a sudden influx of infected, terrified refugees.

'Doctor Sid, welcome,' the head of the council said, giving Sid a brief nod. 'I apologise for not being able to see you in person earlier, but we're a little snowed under,' Sid nodded, smiling gratefully.

'I understand completely, councillor Morris. I just thank you for agreeing to see us at all,' Morris smiled just a little, gesturing to the other council members as he spoke.

'You may not be so glad when you hear what we have to say. We've reviewed your request, and have agreed that we simply cannot provide the resources you require,' Aki blew out a silent sigh; it wasn't an unexpected answer, just an unwanted one.

'I'm sure you understand, doctor,' Morris went on, his tone showing he was trying justify the decision. 'The population of this city has never been stable, and what with the extra inhabitants we've just received. . . We don't even have enough space to accommodate them all,' Sid gave a grateful, if weary nod.

'We do realise this, councillor, but we had to try. Now I must ask that you allow us to leave the city as soon as possible. It is essential that we find a city that can spare the resources we need, and that we find it quickly,' Morris' face fell further, if such a thing were possible.

'We were hoping you would stay on a while longer. We have more infected patients than we can bear right now and -- '

_Looking up at the sky, into the murky orange and blue; such a perfect day for a change._ _Even the phantoms seem quiet outside on the plains; not screeching and trying to claw their way through the barriers. Looking up, we catch a glimpse of something metal high above our heads; something un-natural, placed in the cold of space by us. The glint of light grows and grows, and then we realise what it is. Screaming and screaming, but it cannot save us. We can't escape. Screaming._

_And then silence._

Pain exploded through Aki's body suddenly as a thick blanket of silence smothered her. Involuntarily collapsing back into Gray's arms, bright white light flashing and pulsing around her, the image appeared again and again. Light appearing from the heavens, evaporating anything in its way; silencing the screams as its victims realised what was about to happen. The sensation of being pulled apart from every angle, as if she had been there herself. Sudden silence. Sudden darkness.

'Aki?' The silence cleared, and the pain faded to reveal concerned faces hovering over her; bright lights near blinding her.

'They. . . They're all dead. . .' she whispered, her head swimming.

'Doctor Sid?' That was Morris, she realised vaguely. 'Is she. . .?' Sid disappeared from her sight for a moment.

'We'll have to take her to a medic straightaway,' Morris nodded.

'Of cour -- ' He didn't get much further, frantic footsteps appearing from somewhere to Aki's left. She was suddenly hit with the same sense of helplessness she had suffered after Tucson. What was going on?

'Sir! Urgent news from Atlanta!' Everyone was torn between whether to continue looking at the fallen scientist or to turn and stare at the young comms officer who sprinted in, his headset dangling from one hand.

'Council is in session, lieutenant,' Morris said sternly. This was turning out to be one hell of a meeting. 'What can be so -- '

'Atlanta has fallen,' the soldier gasped. The faint murmurs that had been rippling around the room exploded into cries of shock. Aki remained silent and still, a million thoughts running through her head. She suddenly felt very sick; the dream, the light from the sky. It all made a horrific, unreal kind of sense now. Morris had to forcibly stop his voice from quavering as he spoke.

'Two fallen cities in two days. . . Did the barrier fail?' That was the thought going through everyone's mind. There was always a debate in the international council about the dependency on the barriers. Some scientists were convinced that the phantoms would one day develop immunity to the harmful bioetheric energy; just as bacteria developed immunity against antibiotics. But how? And why now; when they were so close? The pale soldier shook his head, and Morris noted, for the first time, that he looked absolutely terrified.

'It wasn't the phantoms, sir,' he said as calmly as he could manage. 'They may have taken some of the survivors, but it wasn't them,' Another stab of pain shot through Aki, making her put a hand to her head. No. _It can't. . . It was just a dream!_

'It was Zeus. Atlanta was destroyed by Zeus,'

There was silence again; a stunned, sickened silence that seemed to last forever. _It was just a dream. It can't have been real. It doesn't make any sense!_ But it did make sense; it made more sense than anything else she could think of.

'A malfunction?' Morris said, his voice no more than a whisper. He knew – as they all knew – what the answer would be. It would take a major malfunction for the cannon to fire, and even more of a problem to make it move over a barrier city while doing so. The comms officer shook his head sadly.

'No, sir. We don't know what happened exactly. For about an hour now, we've been receiving distress calls from the station, but we've had a hard time making them out. And five minutes ago, the calls stopped suddenly. We can only assume that it was fired on purpose,'

'Have you tried to get in contact with Zeus, since the firing?' Morris asked, his jaw set in determination. The officer shook his head, and turned to a tech at the side of the room.

'We can probably patch it from here,' Morris nodded slowly.

'Do it. We're going to find out what happened.

'Can you sit, Aki,' Gray asked quietly, doing his best to help her up gently. Aki nodded slightly, ignoring the nausea that swept through her as she forced herself upright. She couldn't miss this; it would confirm everything she was dreading. The entire room was silent, waiting for word from the tech, who was now being helped by the shaking comms officer.

'If Hein made it out of New York,' Gray whispered, subconsciously holding Aki upright with one arm. 'It must have sent him over the edge completely,' Sid gave a sage nod.

'I can't believe they actually gave him the codes. Not after what happened before. . .' Aki was only listening vaguely; her eyes fixed on the holoscreen in the centre of the room. She couldn't shift that sensation of queasiness that had settled in her stomach. The dream was coming back to her every time she closed her eyes; she had been so desperate to escape death, so angry, so scared. Why hadn't she seen it before? Why hadn't she told anyone? She could have stopped it before it all got out of hand like this.

'It's going to be full of static, sir,' the tech warned as a fuzzy picture appeared in the centre of the room. Morris didn't let that deter him as he glared at the rolls of white noise moving up and down the image.

'I don't care,' he muttered. 'We have to -- '

'Well this is an unexpected pleasure,' Aki had to fight the wave of dizziness that swept through her as a low, crackly whisper echoed through the room. She almost couldn't look up; she dreaded what she would see. She didn't want to be right; she didn't want it all to be right. But the shocked gasp that rippled around the chamber let her know exactly who was there, smirking ever so slightly at them. She forced her head up slowly, and couldn't help but gasp herself.

It was Hein; that much she had feared and anticipated. What she hadn't expected was the change to his appearance. All down the right side of his face, the skin was becoming horribly translucent, exposing all the pulsing blood vessels beneath. His right eye no longer matched the steely gray of the left; instead it was heavily bloodshot, the iris a dull black. He was surrounded by what looked like the faintest of red auras that rippled and followed his every movement; barely tracing his outline as he sat there. No-one could speak; much less logically wonder what had happened. It took Morris a good few moments to find his voice.

'Hein,' he started, sounding as bewildered as he looked. 'What the. . .?' Hein's smile remained smooth, his eyes fixing on the councillor.

'You seem surprised,' he said, the faintest hint of sarcasm touching that otherwise hollow whisper.

'What in blazes happened?' Morris demanded; that little bit of emotion stirring him into action. 'Why did you attack Atlanta?' Hein looked up for a moment, as if contemplating this question.

_(It was not an attack.)_

Aki blinked; that voice. The phantom from her dream at Tucson, and then again last night. That was exactly how it had sounded. . .

'It was not an attack,' Hein said. 'We merely freed them from their suffering,' Morris let his jaw drop.

'_Freed_ them? What do you mean?'

_(They were suffering.)_

'They were suffering. We took away their pain and gave them the peace they deserved,' Aki couldn't take her eyes off him; off that faint, amused smile that seemed to widen as Morris exploded with anger.

'Damnit, Hein,' he growled, slamming a balled up fist onto the desk before him. 'You're not making any sense!' Hein raised his right hand to his face; Aki could see he had already taken his customary gloves off. The blood vessels were painfully visible through his near-transparent skin here too; in fact, it was more pronounced.

'We're making perfect sense, councillor,' Hein replied silkily; casually almost as he idly examined the palm of his hand. 'You all want to be free of pain, you just won't admit it to yourselves. You struggle and fight, pretending that you enjoy the suffering, when all you want is peace and bliss,' The smile widened ever so slightly.

_(We shall help them.)_

'We shall help you obtain that peace. You'll thank us one day,'

_(But some do not deserve peace.)_

Hein looked up from his hand, and suddenly his gaze was fixed on Aki; the red aura intensifying around him for a moment.

_(They were selfish. They did not want to help.)_

'She knows,' Hein whispered. 'She understands what we have done. But she disagreed; she wants you to suffer,' Aki's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. _If I could see what was happening to him, does this mean. . .?_ His gaze didn't move from her, and Aki just stared right back; unsure of how to respond. What was this voice, and why was Hein reiterating what it said? Her chest had knotted significantly every time that voice had spoken; as if her infection was trying to reply.

_(She will help them fight us. So we must stop her.)_

One thing was clear to her; Hein must have lost his mind to agree to this. For someone who openly despised the phantoms, this was as much of a character change as you could get.

'You're mad,' she muttered, glaring levelly at him. She wasn't going to let some insane general and a disembodied voice intimidate her. That ghost of a smile returned to Hein's lips, and the aura retreated.

'And you're weak,' He glanced at something off-screen for a moment, and then back down at them.

'But that won't matter much longer. We shall be over Trenton soon, and then you will all understand peace,' And with that, the transmission cut out, leaving the shocked council to sit in silence for a long moment.

'We can't regain contact, sir,' the tech said quietly, though everyone knew that was the case anyway. Morris shook his head slowly, his expression showing that he couldn't quite believe what was going on.

'. . .You,' he said, gesturing to the comms officer. 'Get in touch with as many cities as possible; let them know what's happening. See if we can trace Zeus' position and see how much time we have left. And. . . Give the order to evacuate. We're not going down like Atlanta,' The officer nodded curtly, saluting quickly before sprinting off the way he had come. Morris now turned his attention to Aki – who was sat deep in thought – his expression stern.

'Well, doctor Ross? What do you have to do with this?' Aki could see Sid giving her a worried glance out of the corner of her eye. He had reason to be worried; they both did. This was, after all, something not even he could help her with.

'I. . . I'm not sure,' she said. Now that it came down to explaining what she feared, she was finding it difficult to order her thoughts. 'I can't explain it right now. It's just. . . too much,'

'I don't think we have time to sit here and discuss this at this moment in time anyway,' Sid said, giving Aki a look that told her he was part-worried, part-disappointed. She suddenly felt very guilty for not telling him anything. If she had told him something – anything – she had no doubt that he would be able to explain it.

'You're right, doctor,' Morris said, his tone weary once more. 'We have to stop Zeus; that much is clear. We can worry about why and how this has happened once everyone is safe,' One of the other councillors frowned, shaking her head.

'But how do we stop Zeus?' There was a brief silence, interrupted only when Gray spoke up.

'This city used to be one of the main supply routes to Zeus, didn't it?' Morris nodded, his eyes narrowing.

'Yes. We still are. Ships launch from here and take up mechanical and electrical supplies. Why?' Gray smiled ever so slightly.

'I've got an idea. . .'


	14. Up into the Black

Aki stood and watched in silence as Gray spoke to a group of soldiers that were heading up to Zeus. She was feeling a little uneasy about this idea of his. Though Trenton was a small city by normal standards, it was proving to be more useful than they'd originally thought. It was home to many of the engineers and techs that had worked on the construction of Zeus, and its main function was to provide spare parts and extra equipment for it. After speaking with the council, it had turned out that Trenton had a small fleet of transport ships that were used for supply runs. Gray's plan was simply to load these ships with soldiers, go up and storm Zeus before it reached and fired upon the city. It was just about the only logical plan they had right now, and they didn't have time to think out another one, but it didn't stop Aki feeling a little worried. She was beginning to get an idea of what her visions meant; of what had been happening before the council meeting. She didn't want Gray going up into a situation he didn't expect and getting himself killed. She wanted to help; to quell that feeling of guilt that was residing in her stomach. She knew what had been going on, in a vague sort of way. She should have told someone, but she didn't. And now look at what had happened.

'Almost ready now,' Gray said, moving back over to her and noting the expression on her face. 'Hey, it's not that bad. We've all done more dangerous things than this,' Aki shook her head.

'I want to come up as well,' Almost instantly, Gray was disagreeing.

'This is dangerous, Aki,' he started, only to be cut off when she chuckled derisively.

'You think I've never been in danger before?' she muttered. Gray blew out a breath as he gazed at her.

'This is different. Who knows what's going on up there? We might not -- '

'I know what's going on,' she said quietly; almost hoping he wouldn't hear. Gray's brow furrowed.

'What?' Aki sighed, waving a hand.

'At least I think I do. It's. . . difficult to explain. And unless I can see Hein in person, I don't think I'll ever be able to explain it,' Gray stared at her for a moment, thinking this through.

'Sid needs you though,' he said, not making a very good effort of talking her out of this. 'For the spirits,' Aki glanced over to where Sid was speaking with one of the Trenton researchers. He had decided to help out with the city-wide evacuation, which hopefully wouldn't be as dangerous as heading up to Zeus.

'But I'm the only one who knows what's happening to Hein,' she replied quietly, forcing herself to look back at Gray. 'What if I'm the only one who can help him?' Gray remained silent, staring firmly at her. She could just see his eyes soften slightly, as they always did when he realised she had a point.

'It's not my call,' he said, almost regretfully. 'The council want you to stay here and -- ' Aki shook her head.

'But _I_ don't want to stay here,' she said, trying her best to keep her tone low. The last thing she needed was everyone hearing how she was trying to take part in a near-suicidal mission. She _had_ to get up there. She had to see Hein, and she had to figure out what was going on.

'Alright, Aki,' Gray said softly, putting both his hands on her shoulders to try and calm her. 'I'll try. I can't promise anything, but I'll try,' He smiled at her before walking off to speak with a soldier near the ship. Aki took the moment to glance around the hangar, seeing almost nothing but armour-clad soldiers, occasionally separated by an officer or technician. There were about fifty troops; four squads for four ships. The council had decided that it needed most of its military to help out with the evacuation, which was already underway. Without any soldiers to calm the panicking civilians, who knew what might happen? Besides, a lot of the soldiers that had made it out of New York alive had come straight here, and the ones who weren't infected wanted to help out. Her eyes fixed on a fairly large group of New York infantry, recognisable by the insignia on their arms, grouped around an officer who was quickly donning some borrowed armour. Aki's eyes narrowed slightly; that officer was familiar but she couldn't quite place where she'd seen him before.

'It's so good to see that some of the 307s got out alive,' she heard Gray mutter sarcastically. 'And Elliot as well. I wonder if he's planning to arrest us for anything,' Aki smiled slightly at the tone of Gray's voice; she remembered now. Major Elliot; Hein's second in command. She could only imagine how he felt right now.

'Alright. You can come,' Gray went on, holding up a hand as she smiled. 'On a couple of conditions,' Aki raised an eyebrow.

'Conditions?'

'Number one; you stay by me _all_ the time. No wandering off and getting yourself into trouble, alright? How am I supposed to protect you if I don't even know where you are?' Aki nodded meekly, though they both knew she would probably forget this condition in two minutes anyway. Well, either forget or ignore it.

'Number two; you're going up for observation reasons only. The council realise it's important that we find out what's happened to Hein and whether it can happen to anyone else. But you watch and watch alone. Let us deal with the fighting,' Aki scrunched up her face in a mock pout.

'You mean I don't get to play with a gun?' she asked innocently. Gray eyed her – half-amused – for a moment before going on.

'Number three. If we both get out of this alive, you come with me to dinner,' Aki paused for a moment, mouth open to speak words that didn't seem to want to come. By the time she got round to making a sound, Gray had already flashed her a mischievous grin and walked off. She stared after him, open mouth reflexively curling into an amused smile. She had to hand it to him; he knew how to make the best out of a situation. She shook her head slowly, still smiling, and turned to see Sid walking towards her.

'They're letting me go up with them,' she said, trying to make the smile disappear as she saw the serious look on Sid's face. She wasn't sure if he was angry with her, worried about her or what. Even after so long, she still found it hard to see what he was thinking.

'So I heard,' he said, no trace of anything on his voice. 'And I know I can't put you off, so I won't try,' Aki tilted her head to one side and frowned slightly.

'I have to see what's happened to Hein, Sid. I. . . It could have happened to me,' Sid's eyes narrowed. Aki had told him about the dream she'd had at Tucson, but she hadn't been this worried about it. He was beginning to get the feeling she was hiding something from him. 'And I can't help but feel sorry for him,' Sid shook his head.

'Don't you dare, Aki. It may, or may not, be him in control at the moment, but he did some terrible things before all this happened,' His tone was so hard it almost surprised Aki. It wasn't often Sid got angry, but when he did. . . She couldn't help but think that she had missed something. Sid knew something she didn't. _Well, you know something he doesn't. Fair trade,_ she thought.

'Aki, come on,' That was Gray, already taking her by the arm.

'We'll talk about this when you return,' Sid said, still a faint hint of anger to his voice. She nodded silently; that was all she felt she could do.

'Doctor. The other Deep Eyes are staying here to help you out with the evacuation,' Sid turned to see Ryan, Jane and Neil watching the shuttles loading up; wistful looks on their faces.

'They don't look too pleased,' Sid said with a faint smile.

'They'll get over it,' Gray replied, a grin on his face. 'Don't let them walk all over you; give them something difficult to do,' Sid nodded.

'I'm sure the evacuation will keep them busy,'

'Well, we have to be going now, Aki,' Aki sighed slightly, nodding to Sid.

'I'll see you in Washington,' The plan at the moment was to transport as many people to the nearest barrier cities; Washington DC, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh before Zeus got near. Washington had the best research facilities, so Sid was heading there to try and set up a lab to replace the one lost in New York. He gave her a slightly edgy smile.

'You be careful, Aki. You too, captain,'

'We will, doctor,' And before she knew it, Aki was already airborne; heading for space with that uneasy feeling growing in her gut.

Sid watched the shuttles leave with a heavy sense of dread in his heart. He now had no doubt that Aki knew what had happened to Hein; that something had happened to her between the Fall and now. He hadn't had any time to speak with her, and that he regretted. He couldn't begin to understand what was going on here, and that worried him. If he understood, then he would be able to help, but as long as he knew nothing, he was almost worthless. All he could come up with so far was. . . Well, he didn't know what he thought. And years of experience had told him that guessing at the answer before you knew all the facts was not the best way to go about anything. So now he had to endure a long, infuriating wait until he could talk with Aki again. He only hoped that she was going to come back in one piece.

'Are we good to go, doctor?' Sid blinked, turning to see Ryan. The evacuation. That had to be dealt with first; when he got to Washington, then he could worry. But for now, he had to help out. He gave a brief nod and moved to join the three soldiers.

'Indeed sergeant. We're to check the already evacuated areas for stragglers, yes?' This was deemed to be one of the less dangerous – and less interesting – jobs you could have during an evacuation. And obviously the Deep Eyes were aware of this. Ryan nodded; the expression on his face showing just how much he would have preferred going to Zeus. Jane and Neil looked equally unimpressed with their task.

'That's right, doc,' Neil started glumly. 'Checking empty streets. Hours of fun, ahoy,' Sid smiled, shaking his head.

'Well, the sooner we start. . .' The three soldiers groaned.

'You sound exactly like the captain,' Jane muttered, prompting Sid to frown.

'Is that a bad thing?'

'Oh yeah,'

The shuttle Aki was on was disturbingly silent as they made their way up through the atmosphere. They had been grouped together with a few more New Yorkers to form a squad of twelve. Gray was second in command by rank, which suited him just fine; he knew how impossible it would be to keep a close eye on Aki and direct eleven other men at the same time.

'You stay close to me, alright,' he told her for the seventh time since they'd taken off. Aki eyed him derisively.

'I get the point, Gray. Besides, I've got no real desire to go wandering off,' Gray nodded from beneath his helmet.

'I hope you remember that when we get up there,'

They sat in silence for a few moments, the smooth ride becoming more jolted in places as they climbed in altitude. It wasn't Aki's first time in space – or her first visit to Zeus – but she still couldn't shake that uneasy feeling. She did want to know what had happened, and she hoped that this would help her understand what was going on. But somewhere deep down, she was terrified. What if this _did_ happen to her? What if it was just waiting for the perfect moment? Was she going to become what Hein had; was she going to end up killing millions of her own kind for seemingly no reason? She hated that thought, and she hated that she couldn't dispel it. But she had to find out. She couldn't hide anymore.

'Doctor Ross, Captain Edwards,' Aki recognised the voice before she looked up, even though it was masked by the helmet the soldier wore. She had heard this man argue against her and Sid countless times when Hein just couldn't be bothered doing so. She wasn't quite sure why he was daring to speak; after all the last time she'd seen him, he'd been in the process of arresting them all. She was even less sure why she answered.

'Major,' she replied coolly. Gray just sat in silence, watching the other soldier intently.

'It's good to see that you and the Deep Eyes escaped New York,' Elliot said, realising that Gray probably wouldn't respond unless ordered. And even then. . . 'You were already gone by the time I got back to the detention block,' Aki's eyes narrowed.

'You were. . . going to let us out?' she asked curiously. Elliot nodded slightly, staring at the floor.

'I couldn't just leave you there, and I wasn't sure if the failsafe system would kick in or not, so I went back. But, like I said, you were gone,' Aki's frown deepened.

'Why?' she asked, realising it was a stupid question after she'd said it.

'Because he went too far this time. I should have tried to stop him, but by the time I realised the entire city was in ruin,'

'What do you mean?' Gray asked suddenly, his tone a little softer than Aki would have expected. Elliot looked up, shrugging slightly.

'I might as well tell you. Everyone'll hear about it sooner or later anyway,' He paused, and then lowered his voice so the others wouldn't hear. Obviously the rest of the 307s hadn't heard about whatever had happened. 'The barrier didn't fail, it was lowered purposefully,' Aki couldn't speak; her mind was racing. Was this something else Hein had done while under the influence of the phantoms? _But the barrier failed before I felt anything,_ she thought. _Does that mean. . .?_

'He did it on purpose?' Gray growled. Elliot nodded.

'He thought that it would force the council into using Zeus -- '

'And you _knew_!' Some of the other soldiers turned to stare curiously at Gray as he hissed that, but the mission must have seemed more important to them, because they didn't pay attention for long. Aki gave Gray what she hoped was a calm look, putting one hand on his. There was no point in blaming Elliot for something that had been and gone.

'Just let him explain,' she said, hoping that would be enough to placate him. Gray stared defiantly at the major for a moment longer, before shaking his head and leaning back.

'Don't think I didn't try to tell someone,' Elliot said; his own voice cracking with anger. 'I didn't want this; hell, I didn't even know about it until a few minutes before it happened. And by the time I found out the council had gone. . . Well,' The anger disappeared, replaced by a hint of sadness. 'Everything was gone by then,' Gray remained silent, though Aki could feel his fist tight beneath her hand. She could understand his anger; she was angry too. _How could he have done that; been so stupid as to lower the barrier?_ But there was no point in directing it at someone who wasn't to blame. She didn't know Elliot very well; in fact, she knew him even less than she knew Hein. But there was something about the way he spoke that made her believe him.

'It's alright,' she started, only to be interrupted when Elliot shook his head.

'No, it isn't alright. I was supposed to be keeping an eye on him; making sure he didn't get an idea like this in his head again,' Aki's eyes narrowed.

'What do you mean?' Elliot paused, as if he hadn't realised he had been talking, before shaking his head again.

'It's nothing. I'm just. . . I guess I'm still shocked,' He took in what sounded like a deep, calming breath and looked up at Aki.

'I'll be leading the troops from this squad,' he said, trying to sound more at ease than he obviously was. 'You both know our main priority is to stop the cannon before it fires. But, we're also to make sure you don't come to any harm, doctor,'

'I can look after doctor Ross,' Gray said quietly. 'So the rest of the squad can concentrate on the mission at hand,' Elliot shook his head, and Aki could note a distinct tension in the air between them. _Oh. This is going to be _fun _to watch,_ she thought.

'No offence, captain, but doctor Ross' safety is one of our main concerns. The council wasn't exactly ecstatic about letting her up here. We can't lose her,' And with that, he stood and looked down at Aki for a long moment; making her feel a little uncomfortable.

'Without Zeus, she's our only chance,' He nodded to them both, and slowly made his way back to the front of the ship.

'He should just let me watch over you,' Gray muttered mutinously. 'And concentrate on stopping his psycho of a CO,' Aki sighed, her eyes on the major as he sat silently. Suddenly, she felt sorry for him. He might have been one of the proverbial enemies before all this happened, but he was just a soldier following his orders. He'd tried to make things right, but it hadn't worked out. He wasn't like Hein, and Gray wasn't right to focus his anger on him.

'He's just following orders,' she murmured. 'Isn't that what a soldier does?' Gray shook his head.

'Sometimes you have to listen to your own common sense rather than just blindly do as you're told,' he retorted. Aki remained quiet; not wanting to get into an argument. Gray obviously felt strongly about this, and when that happened, it took a miracle to make him see another point of view. She'd used to admire the way he fought passionately for whatever he believed in; never giving in to his opponent. Now it just reminded her of how Hein was. It was worrying to see people so single-minded about things. So she didn't argue further. She just stayed silent.

'We're coming up on the station now,' a voice rasped in her ear. Before take-off, one of the techs had given her a military radio to fit to her headset, so she could be found if she got separated from the main group. It also let her see how the military were _really_ running this mission.

'Roger,' a voice she recognised as Elliot's crackled back. 'Any response to hails?'

'Negative, sir. Total radio silence,' A brief pause.

'Alright, get ready to dock. Everyone be alert; it might be an ambush,' Some of the techs had finally managed to decipher some of the distress calls that had been received before Zeus had fired, and every one had said something about a phantom being on board. No-one knew how on earth a phantom had managed to get up into space, but they weren't taking any chances. All around her, soldiers began checking their weapons and equipment; quietly psyching themselves up for what awaited them. It seemed like an odd mix of troops really; most of them were just normal infantry, armed only with the basic bioetheric lasers. But she could see a couple of elite soldiers sat on the opposite end of the ship; probably Deep Eyes under different command. New York had several sets of Deep Eyes squads; two under each of the separate command groups that operated from the New York base. She could see another Knight; though his sword was broader and longer than Gray's. It had been pretty standard practice years before Gray had graduated to give Knights insanely heavy swords. It made sure that they maintained their strength and fitness while not necessarily taking part in missions all the time. But these days, Knights were given much lighter blades so they could escape from battle easier. It seemed the military mentality had changed from "Destroy your enemy at any cost" to "Save your skin and live to fight another day". _He must have graduated a while before Gray,_ she thought. _And to have survived so long, _She smiled slightly. _He deserves a medal or something,_ The other one was a Blackie; the lone, thick black stripe around his left arm showing this. She found herself wondering whether he was actually a Deep Eye, or part of the new Mage divisions that were being set up in bases across the country. There had been a sudden increase in Whities and Blackies in the past few months, and the military had found that they worked best when they were in groups of two or three, rather than isolated on their own. These new squads – nicknamed _Ghosts_ for the moment – were only in their first year of service, but reports had shown that they outperformed even Deep Eyes on a regular basis.

'Are you ready?' Gray whispered, checking his sword again. Aki nodded slightly. From what she had gathered, they were the last squad to reach the station. Once inside, they were to meet up with another squad and "liberate" the control room while the other two squads sabotaged the engine room and ensured that the secondary firing mechanism was useless. Of course, it wouldn't be useless for long; Aki had little doubt that the military intended to salvage their precious cannon. After all, they hadn't spent ten years and countless millions of dollars building it, only to blow it up before it had even been used for its intended purpose. _Typical,_ she thought, a little bitterly. Well, the army wouldn't change. Why try to force it?

There was a sharp, sudden jolt which Aki assumed was the ship docking with Zeus. She stayed where she was, watching as the rest of the soldiers stood; grouping around the docking hatch.

'Pressure's equalised,' the pilot said. 'No signs of anyone nearby,' By the door, Aki could just see Elliot nod.

'Alright. Form up and keep your eyes open. We don't want to lose anyone,' The door hissed open and one of the soldiers stepped forwards cautiously. Aki swallowed, taking her place behind Gray. Suddenly, this didn't seem like such a good idea.


	15. Zeus

'Well what d'ya know? This one's clear too, sarge,' Ryan shot Neil a glare as the Thief emerged from behind a discarded troop carrier.

'You complaining about your duty, soldier?' he asked, prompting Neil to shrug.

'Look. Running from phantoms I can deal with. Getting arrested I can deal with. Being put in mortal danger every thirty seconds I can deal with,'

'Is there a point to this,' Jane interrupted, peering inside another empty vehicle. 'Or do you really like the sound of your own voice as much I as think?' Neil ignored her.

'But this? This is _boring_, sarge, and you know it. What did we do to deserve some rookie mission like this?' He sat down inside the carrier, waving an arm in gesture. 'We're not going to find anyone, so why are we still here?' Ryan shook his head.

'It doesn't matter if it's boring. It's something that has to be done, you know that,' He peered down a long alleyway, using his helmet scanners to search for any sign of life at all. 'Besides, we've only got a couple more blocks to go. Then we can get out of here,' Neil sighed, jumping down from the carrier and scowling under his helmet.

'Maybe. But I'm still bored,'

'Is he like this all the time?' Sid asked Jane, more than a hint of amusement in his voice. He'd only been in limited contact with the Deep Eyes over the last few days, and this excursion was proving to be most insightful. Jane smirked.

'Pretty much,' she said, pausing where she was and stretching. It felt so long since they'd had anything interesting to do; that wait for the medics earlier had taken longer than she'd thought. 'Not that I don't agree with him. I'd much rather be up on Zeus with the captain than down here. But,' She shrugged. 'Orders are orders,' They walked on in silence for a few moments, casting a brief glance at Neil as he exclaimed something about;

'I found a rat. Does that count? Can we go yet?'

'What did the medics say about you?' Sid asked. 'I mean about the magic. I assume that's why you all were so long,' Jane let out an exasperated growl, shaking her head.

'Tell me about it. Waiting in line for six hours isn't what I call fun. Why do you ask?' Sid gave a little shrug.

'Call it scientific interest,' he started, picking his way over some discarded garbage. 'I spent some time studying the effects of magic on humans before I started theorising about Gaia. It's always been of interest to me,' Jane shrugged, pausing where she was to scan the nearest building as she spoke.

'Well, Doctor Almasy told me I'd progressed to a Beta Black Mage. Whatever that means,' Sid couldn't hide his surprise.

'Already?' he asked; some shock in his voice. Jane nodded idly, moving onto the next building.

'Yup. He was run off his feet so he couldn't tell me what it actually _meant_, but as long as I'm not dying, everything's fine by me,'

'Why the surprise, doc?' Neil asked, abandoning his newfound vermin friend and striding towards them. 'Almasy didn't seem shocked or upset or anything; more sort of. . . pleased really,'

'Yeah, he said they needed more like me in the army,' Jane admitted, stopping and looking back at Sid. 'Why, is it bad?' She did a good job of hiding the slight edge of worry to her voice, but the last thing she needed right now was for something _else_ to go wrong. Getting infected in the first place appeared to be the least of her troubles these days. Sid shook his head, a smile creeping onto his face.

'No, no. Nothing's wrong,' He stepped towards Jane. 'It's just that it's practically unheard of for someone to advance so quickly,' Though he couldn't see their faces through their helmets, Sid got the impression that none of the three soldiers had any idea what he was talking about. He smiled a little more and spread his hands in gesture.

'I may be a little behind on the current theory, but at the moment we have identified four different classes of mage; alpha, beta, gamma and delta. You start off as an alpha; fairly weak, easily tired by rather infrequent use of magic,'

'Hah. That sounds about right,' Jane muttered. The early morning workouts she'd been through during basic training might have been hard, but they were nothing compared to how she felt after just a single bolt of lightning or flash of ice.

'Well, as with any skill the more you use it, the better you get,' Sid went on. 'Though it usually takes several months, or at least weeks, for a person to advance to Beta. It took Aki two months to reach Beta,'

'Trust Jane to manage it in five days,' Neil joked, earning a veiled glare from Jane. She was now beginning to wish that Almasy had decided to explain anything to her, or that she'd had the thought to ask. She'd been so fed up with waiting in line that she hadn't bothered wondering what the doctor had actually been saying.

'So what does it mean?' she asked, ignoring Neil for the moment.

'Well, you'll see an increase in power, efficiency and tolerance. You may even find that you have more forms of magic available to you than before,' He shrugged slightly and moved to glance down an alleyway. 'Though it doesn't happen overnight, and it could take months for you to advance to Gamma,' Jane stayed where she was, brow furrowed in thought. No-one had told her anything like this; that she'd actually get stronger with time. There was so much she didn't know; she had been scheduled to have some sort of meeting with the head of New York's Ghost division, but as the city had fallen before she could meet with him. . . _Damn,_ she thought, moving to catch up with Sid. She couldn't be stuck with this power and not know a damned thing about it.

'So, uhh. . . You're saying I'll get stronger, right?' she asked. Sid gave a brief nod.

'That's about right,' he started. 'Though you might never get to Delta class; only a handful of people have ever lived that long or worked that hard,' Jane shook her head.

'Now I wish I'd paid attention at the debriefing they gave me,'

'Are we all clear?' Ryan called. He had jogged ahead during Jane and Sid's discussion, checking on the remaining buildings and streets.

'Was I right?' Neil asked stubbornly.

'What?'

'Was I right? You didn't find anyone, did you?' Ryan didn't bother to answer that, instead walking past the Thief and addressing Sid.

'Looks like we're done here, doc. We'll report this to base and then we should be good to head to D.C.' Sid nodded, flicking off his headset.

'Good,' he started, setting off with Ryan. 'The sooner we reach Washington, the sooner we can find the next spirit,'

Aki took in a shuddering breath as the icy cold air of Zeus hit her head on. All around her, soldiers were spreading out; two of them running down the long docking corridor to check for hostiles.

'It's freezing in here,' she said, some confusion tinting her voice. That wasn't right at all; the heating was one of the core systems of the station. Even if it were running on emergency power, there should still be heat.

'Someone must have disengaged it on purpose,' Elliot said. 'Or the control system was damaged in a firefight,' Aki couldn't help but notice the edge of worry on the major's voice; there weren't supposed to be any firefights yet. Already this mission was not going as planned.

'Corridor's clear, sir,' a voice whispered through the comm. 'No signs of hostiles,' Elliot nodded, stepping forwards and tapping something on his helmet. Aki suddenly noticed – with some surprise as he walked past her – that he was the other Knight, the sword on his back glittering in the pale light.

'It's too dark in here. Everyone go to night vision,' All around her, the soldiers murmured agreements. Aki just stayed where she was, keeping an eye out for any signs of life. It was odd; there were supposed to be at least thirty five more soldiers on the station, not including Hein. Why couldn't she detect any of them?

'Team two, do you copy?' That was one of the infantry soldiers, probably the comms expert. 'I repeat, team two, do you copy?'

'Anything?' Elliot asked. The soldiers shook his head.

'Nothing, sir. They should be here by now, but they're not responding,' Elliot muttered something under his breath and shook his head.

'They could just be acting under radio silence,' Gray said suddenly from somewhere behind Aki. 'To avoid detection,'

'Maybe,' Elliot mused. 'But for now let's assume the worst,' He started off down the corridor, signalling for the others to follow. 'We stick with the original plan. We have to stop Zeus from firing,' The soldiers all around murmured agreements and set off, Aki and Gray near the rear of the formation.

'I didn't know Major Elliot was a Knight,' she said quietly, prompting something of a muted nod from Gray.

'Oh yeah. He was in charge of the Houston Deep Eyes for the two years before San Francisco fell. Used to help train the rookies at the Academy too,' Aki frowned curiously; this was something she definitely hadn't been told. She had thought that Elliot was one of those career types; willing to stay behind a desk just for a little extra power. But in charge of Deep Eyes. . .?

'How did he end up with Hein then?' Gray shrugged.

'I have no idea. Something happened, just after San Francisco. Elliot got pulled off the squad and transferred to New York suddenly. I don't think they even released an official reason why,' He shook his head. 'Sounds like a cover-up though. He might have messed up an important mission; one that command didn't want the public knowing about,' The military were very sensitive about the success of their Deep Eye squads. Their reasoning was that if you spent so much money and time training a soldier then they had to be triumphant _all_ the time. Anytime a Deep Eye failed a mission seriously, they were usually subject to these cover-ups. It made sense, but there was still something. . .

'But that was seven years ago, wasn't it? He must be a little out of practice,' Gray shook his head again, and she could hear the slightly amused tone to his voice.

'No, no. We Knights are a valuable resource,' he started with a faint hint of arrogance. 'Command doesn't just let us go; you have to keep in training and take part in missions pretty regularly until your body gives up or you get killed,' Aki raised an eyebrow.

'Oh,' Gray chuckled.

'That was what I said when they told me. Even when you're injured you're still supposed to keep in training to some extent,' Aki smiled ever so slightly and twisted her head to look up at him.

'Your job is _fun_,' she said, putting much more sarcastic emphasis on the last word than was necessary.

'Tell me about it,' Gray replied.

They hadn't got very far – creeping along the darkened, silent tunnels – before one of the soldiers on point stopped suddenly; signalling for everyone else to pause as well.

'We've got contact, sir,' he whispered.

'Hostile?'

'No. It looks like one of ours. I'm not getting too much of a life sign reading from him though,' Aki pushed her way to the front, ignoring Gray as he tried to hold her back. So what if she had been told to stay out of the way; she was not going to stand back and let some innocent soldier die. But as soon as she got to him, something told her that he didn't have much of a chance anyway. It was a New Jersey infantry soldier; his rifle lying some way away from his left hand. He was lay at an odd angle, a twisted hunk of metal through his chest. The amount of blood he'd lost and the obvious trauma he'd suffered, it was a miracle he hadn't already died.

'Just step back,' she murmured to one of the New York soldiers huddled around as she lifted a hand to the wound. She might not be able to save him, but maybe she could soothe him. He groaned weakly, the sound masked by his helmet.

'Phantom. . .' he whispered. 'Got. . . everyone else,'

'How did a phantom get up here?' Aki vaguely heard one of the soldiers mutter. 'There's no way it could get past the security up here,'

'Well, it did. We'll figure out how later,' Elliot said, crouching down beside Aki and gesturing to the fallen soldier. 'Is he going to be alright?' Aki shook her head gently.

'The only way we could save him would be to move him, and I can't do that without hurting him further,' A flash of white pierced the darkness, eliciting another groan from the soldier. Aki shook her head again. 'There's not much I can do. He's been infected as well, though. . .' She paused, frowning at his spirit reading. There was something odd about it. Aki had spent a lot of her time around infected patients, checking their spirits to see if there was any kind of consistency about them. Though every infected spirit was different, there were still some similarities between them; there would be a small patch of writhing red somewhere central in the spirit, the blue part of the spirit would be much more vivid than in a usual person – supposedly part of the body's fight against the infestation. But this soldier showed none of these signs. His spirit was faded and the red was fixed in the left side of his chest; larger than she would have expected. She doubted this was a result of his injury, though she wouldn't rule it out, but whatever this phantom had done to him, it wasn't normal.

'That's not what an infected spirit looks like,' Elliot agreed quietly, prompting a slight frown from Aki. 'I mean, I'm no expert, but I've seen enough,' Aki gave a small nod, still frowning curiously at him.

'If we leave him, the injury'll probably kill him before the infection does. . .' Elliot stood and motioned to one of the other soldiers.

'Stay here with him and make sure he's comfortable,' He looked back down to Aki and sighed. 'If he's still alive when we get back we'll try to get him out, but right now we can't spare the men or the time,' Aki understood, though she didn't want to admit it. Leaving someone to die went against everything she was supposed to stand for, but she knew she couldn't miss this chance to figure out what had happened; what could happen again. So, she sighed deeply and nodded, holding a hand to the fall soldier's forehead. His groans were quickly silenced as she nudged him into a deep sleep; one from which he'd probably never awaken.

'Sir! We've got more of our men down here,' Elliot was already heading to the source of the new voice before it had even stopped speaking.

'Tell me we've got some live ones,' he muttered, stopping in his tracks as he saw what greeted him.

'More than one phantom did this, sir,' The first soldier said, shaking his head. 'There's no way one of them can take out a squad at once,' Elliot remained silent for a moment. It looked like more than one squad had been caught here, in this dead-end. They'd probably not been too familiar with the layout of the station and headed down here in hope of sanctuary, instead finding nothing. They were all dead; some of them had been caught unawares, and others still had their smoking rifles in their hands. And there was no trace of any spirit left in any of them; a sure sign that this was the doing of a phantom; or many phantoms, as it looked now.

'Damnit,' Elliot said, turning to gesture to the comms soldier. 'Get in touch with command and tell them we've got more than we expected up here,' The soldier nodded, already murmuring into his radio. Gray and Aki had now reached the site of the massacre; Gray turning to Elliot and not noticing as Aki frowned into her headset.

'So what now?' Elliot blew out a breath.

'We can't let the station fire on Trenton, which gives us no choice but to continue to the control centre,' Gray looked around a little uneasily.

'What about back-up?' Elliot shook his head firmly.

'We don't have time,'

'But we can't just sacrifice everyone before we even get to the controls,' Gray countered, standing up to the major.

'We don't have a choice,' Elliot replied, a definite tinge of irritation on his voice. 'It would take at least another hour for reinforcements to arrive, by which time either we'll be dead or there'll be a crater where Trenton used to be,' Gray didn't move, his own voice hardening a little.

'There has to be some other plan we can -- ' Elliot cut him off with a firm glare.

'If you can think of anything better, then I'm willing to listen, _captain,'_ Gray knew when he was having rank pulled on him, and he also knew that it was a very bad idea to push the argument further. But if Elliot went on with this plan, there was no way they were going to be able to pull this mission off without severe casualties. Elliot took the forced silence from Gray as a good sign and stepped back a little.

'Don't get me wrong; this isn't a plan I'm fond of. If there are phantoms up here, I don't want to be leading everyone into a trap,' He let out an exasperated sigh, shaking his head. 'But there's nothing else that comes to mind,'

'There's something about this that doesn't make sense,' Gray said, mutinous tone becoming thoughtful for a moment. Elliot frowned.

'How do you mean?'

'If there are so many hostiles on board,' Gray started, keeping an eye on Aki as she picked her way towards the centre of the corridor; her eyes fixed on a prone soldier lay separate from the others. 'Why haven't we been attacked yet?' Elliot nodded slightly.

'The thought did cross my mind. There's a lot that's not adding up here, and I don't like it one bit,' Gray was about to respond, when Aki let out a half-delighted cry, kneeling down by one of the fallen soldiers and picking up his rifle.

'Aki, what are you doing?' Gray asked, stepping gently over the bodies as he tried to reach her.

'I don't believe our luck,' she said almost excitedly, shaking her head.

'Lucky?' Gray exclaimed, the hint of anger returning. 'Look around, Aki. This isn't lucky,' Aki popped open the rifle, gently taking out the half-spent ova-pack before turning to him.

'I don't mean this, Gray,' she said, some coldness in her voice. 'I mean _this_,' She held up the pack, eyeing it in the pale light.

'What's so special about a used ova-pack?' Elliot asked. Aki shook her head, cradling the device like it was a precious newborn child.

'It's not the pack that's special, it's the spirit _inside_ the pack. It's the sixth spirit,' Gray reached her, allowing himself to half-frown, half-gape beneath his helmet.

'Are you sure?' Aki nodded.

'There's no doubt,'

'Wow. That _is_ lucky,'

'So you're saying that _that_ is going to help stop the phantoms?' Elliot asked; his tone betraying just how doubtful he felt about it. Aki nodded again, making her way past him and smiling.

'Basically, yes,'

'We've got movement, sir,' a voice said urgently, prompting Elliot to move back the way they had come.

'You can explain it to me later, doctor,' he said, refocusing his attention on the radio. 'Is it close?'

'No, sir. But whatever it is, it sure isn't human,' Elliot nodded, gesturing to various soldiers.

'Alright. Simons, Denton; you two take point. The rest of you form up and stay tight. We're heading for the control room now,'

'Remember,' Gray whispered to Aki as she was ushered along. 'You stay close to me, alright? Especially now you've got the spirit to protect,' Aki nodded vaguely, trying to blink away the sudden nausea that had swept over her in the last few minutes. It had been hard enough not to let on that she had been hearing that voice ever since she had set foot on the station; its tone harder and crueller than it had been. It was talking to someone, and it was not happy.

_(She is coming. They are all coming now. We must stop them and then we must continue as planned. No more anger, no more vengeance. No more doing as you please. You will obey us and realise that the Restoration is the only thing that matters. It is more important than what you desire and it must be fulfilled.)_

She was beginning to get the feeling that this _was_ some kind of trap, and that whatever enemy had set it was far more deadly than everyone – herself included – imagined.


	16. Fall from the Heavens

They weren't too far from the control centre, when the two soldiers at the front of the formation stopped suddenly, pulling up and holding their position at the edge of the corridor.

'Denton, what's wrong?' Elliot growled through the comm, clearly annoyed that this was taking so long. Aki could just see the soldier raise a hand in a gesture of apology as he turned to look back at the major.

'The life sign, sir. It's gone,'

'What?' The soldier's confusion was plain in his tone.

'I don't know, sir. It was there a second ago, about fifty feet in front of us and then it just. . . disappeared,' Elliot glared at the floor for a moment, shaking his head.

'Are you sure?' he asked. 'It's not just gone out of range?' Denton shook his head.

'No, sir. The entire station is within our range. It just. . . vanished,' Elliot stood up, stalking to the front of the group and scanning the corridor himself, just to make sure.

'This isn't any ordinary phantom,' he muttered. He'd dealt with more than enough phantoms in his time, and they had never just "disappeared" without trace nor reason. This was just adding to the uneasy sensation that was developing in his stomach. Something was going to go very, very wrong here sooner or later, and he just knew they were going to get caught up in it.

'Keep your eyes peeled,' he ordered, moving back to his place in the line. 'We can't deviate now. We have to get to the control room,' Seeing the look Aki was giving him, and let out an almost exasperated sigh.

'If you'd prefer, Captain Edwards can escort you back to the transport, doctor,' Aki shook her head; fighting every instinct in her body. She could feel it; something was not right here. But she couldn't run away; not now.

'We're not far from the control centre now, are we?' she asked. She could vaguely remember coming through here on one of her earlier visits to the station. Mind you, back then she had been here for slightly more sinister reasons; her infection being one of them. She'd spent most of her time cooped up in the science area, only able to stare down at the earth from behind thick, cold glass. She'd only been allowed to venture out of confinement near the end of her prolonged stay here, and the officer in charge hadn't been exactly fond of letting her explore. So, she was mildly surprised when Elliot nodded, pointing with one gloved finger.

'The main door is thirty feet down this corridor, with other entrances dotted around. Ten minutes and we'll be ready to get out of here,' Though he sounded optimistic enough, Aki could tell he didn't believe himself one bit.

They reached the door with no problems, the soldiers still warily looking out for this extra life signature that had been spotted earlier. Aki was suddenly struck by the thought that they hadn't seen any sign of Hein yet. Maybe he. . . _No. That's a little _too _far-fetched,_ she told herself, sticking close to Gray as the group came to a halt again. Elliot shifted to the front, his attention fixed on a small keypad by the large door. Aki could see the tiny fizz of smoke and hear the hissing from the panel; something that told her the door wasn't going to open as easily as they thought, even before Elliot let out another exasperated growl.

'It's just not our day,' he said with some sarcasm, shaking his head and gesturing to the Blackie. 'Think you can get this open, Reyes?' The Blackie studied the door for a moment, flexing his fingers before extending his arms to place his palms on the heavy metal. Up close, Aki could see the insignia on his arm a lot clearer. _So there are Ghosts in active service,_ she thought, noting the small symbol just above the black band on his armour. _And a Gamma. . ._She'd never seen anything higher than a Beta in action – either Whitie or Blackie. She had to say she was looking forward to seeing what this one could do.

'I can give it a try. These things are reinforced too many times to count though. It might take some time,' Elliot nodded, patting the soldier on the shoulder.

'Do it as fast as you can. The rest of you are on watch; if you see anything out of the ordinary report it right away. Otherwise we maintain complete silence until that door is open,' Everyone nodded, crouching where they were and staring at the displays through their helmets intently. Aki did her best to help; though her headset was nowhere near as powerful as those given to the military, she could still detect lifeforms from a few hundred feet away. So, she crouched by Gray and she watched.

_(We know you're there.)_

The voice startled her, not only because it came so sudden and so clear, but because it sounded so familiar.

_(We know what you're trying to do.)_

She tried to move, to speak, to alert Gray; something. But her whole body seemed fixed in that crouching, watching position; her mouth seemed to be clamped shut and no amount of mental struggling would prise it open. The only thing she could do was convey her shock in her eyes, but no-one noticed. No-one saw her eyes widen as the voice chuckled.

_(We both know you won't succeed. So why did you come? Why didn't you hide on Gaia, collecting your precious fragments and trying vainly to stop us? Do you want your peace so much that you felt you had to come looking for it?)_

_I came,_ Aki thought, though every word took so much effort; every syllable was like a white hot poker burning through her mind. _Because I want to help you,_ The voice laughed again, and she realised how hollow it was; how it lacked the mirth that should have been there.

_(You are the ones who need help. Not us.)_

A large fissure appeared in the door, startling Aki out of her trance.

'Stand back,' Reyes muttered, deep in concentration. Aki watched silently – partly out of fascination, partly because she was still numb inside – as long, frosty streaks of ice began to spread over the door; emanating from the hands of the Blackie. Soon the whole panel was covered in a sheen of chilled white, fractures appearing and scattering throughout the structure. Reyes took a step back, still one palm outstretched towards the door. A sharp crack later, and the entire door imploded; buckling at its hinges and crumbling to the floor, sending a stream of frosty dust into the air that took some time to clear. Reyes was the only one who didn't flinch reflexively at the blast and took a tentative step backwards.

'Everyone down!' he yelled, throwing himself to the floor. No-one argued as they followed suit, the reason for Reyes' alarm becoming clear as an enormous spear of ice came hurtling through the cloud of dust; missing the heads of some soldiers by a hair's breadth before impaling itself on the wall a hundred feet behind them.

'What the. . .?' one of the soldiers exclaimed. 'What the hell was that?'

'We're still getting no spirit signs, sir,' another one yelled. 'It doesn't make any sense!'

As chaos erupted around her, instinct kicked in and – keeping as low as she could – Aki began to channel her energy into forming a barrier in front of the soldiers. She hadn't been forced to create these barriers too much; they only worked well against physical or magic attacks and seemed to have no effect on phantoms. She knew it wouldn't stand much chance of stopping another attack like that, but it _would_ deflect it; making it less powerful so that anyone struck by it might have a chance of surviving.

She was so busy concentrating that she didn't see the blue aura flare around Reyes; his hands outstretched in front of him. The other soldiers were bristling, eager to attack whatever enemy was assaulting them now, but Elliot shook his head, gesturing to them.

'Stand down and stay behind Reyes,' he warned. The Blackie's hands were glowing an intense bright red as the blue aura shone vividly around him; tiny balls of turbulent crimson energy forming at his fingertips, slowly growing in size as one of the soldiers near the front cried out in alarm.

'We've got a life readi -- '

'Stay down!' Elliot called, able to see what was approaching them this time; a wall of crackling lightning sparkling brightly in the dull light. Aki almost flinched at the sight, but she stayed where she was, concentrating desperately. The barrier was up, but it was weak; nowhere near strong enough to make the solid electricity even blink.

_(Do you see?)_

The wall was coming ever closer, and the fatigue from past days was making itself known. She didn't know if she could save any of them; if she could stop it at all.

'What the. . .? The reading's gone!'

_(Do you see how futile your struggle is?)_

The balls of energy at Reyes' fingertips suddenly interlocked; forming one spinning, fierce ball of energy that pulsed and spat as he hurled it into the control centre.

_(Just accept peace. It will be easier for all of you.)_

Aki closed her eyes as the darkness of the control room was blocked out by the joint intensities of the lightning wall and Reyes' attack. She'd never believe it; there was nothing about life that was futile. . .

The electricity suddenly dissolved into nothing, dissipating on an invisible screen some two inches from Reyes' outstretched palm. Moments later, the ball of energy exploded, engulfing the entire room in a fiery red light that flared up into a crescendo of noise and radiance.

'Everyone in, now!'

It felt like an eternity had passed before the roar faded and Aki opened one tentative eye in time to see Gray grab her by the arm, keeping her behind him as he pulled her into the control room. The first thing she saw was the remnants of the main control panel; all twisted, melted metal as a result of Reyes' attack. She saw no sign of their attacker until a faint, almost translucent twinkle caught her eye. She knew what that was; the remainder of a magic barrier. She knew that whatever had been attacking them had survived, and that it was still around here somewhere. But where?

'No life readings anywhere, sir,' one of the soldiers muttered, hand to his helmet. 'It's like there was nothing here,' Elliot glanced slowly – carefully – around the room, just to make sure.

'Stay alert. Looks like Reyes completed our primary objective for us, so now we head to the engines and shut down the secondary mechanism,' He turned towards the door and began to lead the way out.

'We weren't expecting to see you so soon,' Aki – and everyone else in the room – span around as that raspy whisper suddenly echoed throughout the control room. At first she couldn't make out the source – giving her the impression that she was hearing things again - but then she spotted him stood there in the centre of the room, as if he'd been stood there all along; that same superior smirk plastered on his face. The transparency of his skin had spread to cover almost the entirety of the right side of his face, covering it with exposed blood vessels. She couldn't help but notice that these were starting to disappear as well at the edges of his form. It was like he was being rubbed out from the outside in. The skin on the left side of his face was ashen; much paler than usual. The right eye was almost fully visible in its socket; still totally bloodshot with that piercing black iris. The clothing on his right side was ripped and torn, as if it were deteriorating of its own accord. At first she still couldn't quite figure out what was going on, and then she noticed his spirit though her headset. That was the worst thing; his spirit. It was jagged and red on the right side; pulsing with energy and vitality. But the left side was a pale fading blue, nothing when compared to what was on the right. It was almost as if the phantom within were taking over, not just controlling him as she'd first thought. She immediately found herself both fascinated and deeply sickened; how was this even possible?

'Hold your fire,' Elliot commanded, prompting Aki to notice that every soldier in the room had their weapon trained on the smiling general.

'You should stop us now,' Hein said quietly, taking a slow, measured step towards the nearest soldier. 'While you still have a chance,'

'Do _not_ fire,' Elliot said warned, noting the soldiers tense up as Hein got closer. 'And you stay back, general,' Hein's smirk grew a little more sarcastic.

'What will you do if we don't? Arrest us? Take us back down to Gaia so we can hurt you more?' He shook his head derisively. 'You've already missed your chance. Peace is the only thing that awaits you,'

What happened next was a blur to Aki; one moment Hein was stood perfectly still at least five feet from the nearest soldier, and the next he had managed to move to the other side of the room. The soldier who had been closest to Hein – who Aki suddenly realised had been Reyes – was dead, slumped over where he had stood. A second was gasping and choking; fighting to get free with all his might as his spirit began to slither out of his body. Hein had his right hand clamped around the soldier's neck, still smiling. Aki felt her jaw drop as she saw the struggling soldier's spirit slowly slide out of his neck, up Hein's arm and into his chest. It was all over in two seconds, but it played over and over in her head. It all clicked; Hein had killed all the other soldiers. He had the same ability to take spirits as the phantoms did. But, how?

Gunfire suddenly rang in her ears and she blinked away her thoughts to see the remaining soldiers unloading their clips at Hein. The general just stood there, the bioetheric bullets not even seeming to touch him. But they hit everything else; the control panels, the screen, the heavy window that separated them from the vacuum of space.

'Cease fire!' Elliot yelled frantically. But it was too late; panels spat flames before exploding in a shower of sparks and a very large crack appeared in the front window. Aki paled. This wasn't the best place to be right now.

'Retreat!' Elliot ordered, already ushering Aki out. 'Captain, you get her out of here safely. We can't lose that spirit,' Gray nodded, pushing Aki out of the control room.

'But. . . We can't just leave them!' Aki exclaimed, partly relieved that she was getting out but most put off that she was being forced out. Gray didn't say anything until they were a good distance away; the sounds of battle from the control room growing muffled and vague.

'We've got no choice, Aki. We have to leave them,'

Elliot couldn't quite believe what had happened here. Every time he even blinked, it seemed like another of his men had fallen. There were only four others left now; two heading vainly for the door and the other two separated on opposite sides of the room. A split second later, and the two near the door were down; the other two panicking and firing wildly. Elliot forced himself to ignore them – to hope that they could look after themselves – and headed for one of the control panels; hoping the gunfire hadn't done too much damage. There was no way they were going to be able to stop Hein in time; he could see that clearly now. Though the primary firing mechanism had been broken beyond repair, Elliot knew – as Hein probably did – that the secondary system was perfectly fine. There was only one thing left to do. Destroy Zeus and make sure Hein was still on board.

He worked as fast as he could, not an easy thing to do as there was another frantic spray of gunfire following by a gurgled cry. Elliot cursed under his breath, wishing that the techs who had designed the self-destruct had made it a little easier to set up. It was a long, infuriating process of entering access codes and identity tags. The military hadn't been fond of the idea of losing the station, but this was just stupid. It was made a hell of a lot more difficult when half the panel was spitting sparks at you, melted and deformed from the earlier blast, but he kept on going; knowing this was the only way they were going to stop the attack on Trenton.

He was mildly surprised, therefore, when the computer accepted his ID and didn't ask for another. Usually it took at least two registered officers to start the self-destruct, except when the security systems could sense phantoms on board. His eyes drifted upwards as Hein walked slowly towards him; pausing on the other side of the panel. At first Elliot thought his helmet sensors were playing up as he frowned at the spirit reading he got, but then it all made a strange sort of sense. No wonder Zeus had detected a phantom on board.

'You're the only one left,' Hein said mildly, his smile not reaching his strangely emotionless eyes. Elliot was used to seeing so much in those eyes; usually anger or irritation. Now there was nothing. But he ignored that for the moment and hit the confirm button. Ten minutes; that was how long he had. Now he had to keep Hein busy.

'You didn't run like all the rest,' Hein went on quietly. He almost sounded interested. 'Why?'

'I'm not afraid of you,' Elliot replied as forcefully as he could. The truth was he was terrified at this exact moment in time, but he'd spent enough time with Hein to learn to deal with that.

'Why not? You should fear us. We're stronger than you,'

'There's no point in being afraid,' Elliot replied. That was something Hein had told him once after the San Francisco Fall, just before they'd both been moved to New York.

'Because fear makes you weak, and that's what gets you killed,' Hein murmured, his voice losing the hollow touch for a moment. Elliot blinked; that was exactly what he had said back then.

'That's right,' The emotionless smirk suddenly disappeared, replaced by a slightly puzzled frown. Elliot couldn't help but notice that the aura surrounding the general had all but faded to the point of nothingness.

'You're not afraid to die?' Hein asked, almost sounding like himself again. Almost. Elliot shrugged, eyes darting to search for any means of escape. It had been a minute and a half already, and he had no real desire to die up here. With the general confused as he appeared to be, not only would Elliot be able to escape, but maybe Hein wouldn't be so quick to give chase.

'Death's inevitable,' Elliot said, eyeing the exit to his left. It was about twenty feet away, he reckoned, and only the control panel in front of him stood between him and Hein. Hopefully it would be enough of an obstacle to give him a head start. 'You can't escape it, so why worry?' A glance back at Hein showed that he had said exactly the wrong thing. The red glow around his body spiked suddenly, and the emotionless whisper was back as he replied.

'How right you are. . .' he mused, nodding. And then suddenly he was right beside Elliot; that deadly right hand bearing down on him. Elliot did the first thing that came to mind; he raised his sword in as defensive a position possible given the lack of space, and waited to die. But death never reached him. The sword appeared in time to block Hein's attack; his palm hitting the blade and eliciting an inhuman scream from him. Elliot spotted an opening and hit the flailing general as hard as he could with the hilt of the sword, pleasantly surprised when it hit skull with a resounding crack. Without waiting to see the general fall, Elliot turned and ran for his life.

_(Leave them. You must escape.)_

Her eyes were hard; accusing him as she spoke. All around, the dull metal of the station faded in and out of focus; slipping towards that burnt plain where she was waiting for him. No. He couldn't do as she asked this time. He could still save the situation; he could stop them. He had already failed her once; he wasn't going to do it again.

_I won't. . . I can't let them get away!_

_(Listen to us: You must escape. There will be another time for vengeance.)_

_This isn't about revenge. And I'm not going to escape; I can still shut off the self-destruct. But I won't let them slip through my fingers!_

_(You must obey us.)_

_No. . . I won't let them escape. . ._

Aki and Gray were only a few corridors from the control room when a low alarm began to blare around them. The soldier tilted his head to one side, listening carefully.

'What is it?' Aki asked, casting a look over her shoulder. No sign of any soldiers. No sign of anything.

'Self-destruct, I think,' Gray replied, smiling slightly beneath his helmet. 'I've got to hand it to Elliot, that's a brave idea,' He sighed, looking back the way they had come. 'Just a shame he won't get out alive,' Aki felt a pang of sorrow hit her; she couldn't help but feel a little sorry for the major. He had always thought that he was like Hein; so cold and uncaring, but this mission had taught her different. Gray was right; it was a shame.

'Come on,' she said quietly, pulling on Gray's arm. 'We can't have much time,' Gray nodded silently, and with a final glance down the corridor, they moved off again.

They had to move quite slowly; much slower than Gray would have liked. His armour helped to give him some gravity, so he could run if he needed to, but Aki had to float, and though this wasn't her first time in space she was having trouble adjusting to zero-G again. It had been several minutes since they had left the control room and at this rate, it would be several more until they reached the ship. Gray had no idea how much time Elliot had given them before the station would explode, but he imagined it wasn't too long.

'We're going to cut this pretty fine,' he muttered, casting another look over his shoulder.

'I'm holding us up aren't I?' Aki apologised. 'I never did like space,' Gray stopped, holding out a hand to her.

'Let me carry you. It'll be faster,' Aki frowned sceptically.

'You sure?'

'Of course. We are in zero-G after all; you can't be that heavy,' Aki blew out a small sigh, shaking her head.

'If this is just an excuse to grope me. . .' Gray held off the chuckle; they could laugh later when they'd escaped.

'C'mon, trust me. Do you want to get blown up?'

'Good point,' She jumped lightly into his arms and wrapped her arms around his neck. 'Don't drop me,' she warned.

'Hold on then,'

They hadn't got very far – even with Gray running at a gentle jog – when a squeal of sheer rage pierced the air. It sounded like a very angry phantom, and it was close; much too close.

'Running faster might be an idea,' Aki said, prompting a frown from Gray.

'Thanks for the advice,' he muttered, breaking into a sprint, Aki glancing behind them as he ran.

'Transport, two of us coming. Better get ready to leave fast,' Gray ordered through his radio as they rounded a corner. Aki was squinting through her eyepiece; she was suddenly picking up lifeforms not only in front, but behind her as well. But she couldn't see Hein at all.

'There's someone behind us,' she murmured. 'Running fast,'

'Then at this rate they'll probably hit the transport before we do,' Gray said. Aki hoped so; she'd hate to leave someone up here.

Elliot suddenly felt very thankful for the schematics of Zeus he had been forced to study endlessly while it was still in construction. He would have got lost by now if he didn't know the place like the back of his hand. He did feel slightly less thankful for the heavy sword on his back though; there was nothing better at slowing you down than a chunk of metal that weighed half as much as you did. But the adrenaline was stopping him from feeling the pain that no doubt crashed through his legs with every step; through his lungs with every sharp intake of breath. He didn't dare look behind him, even when he heard the phantom-esque scream of anger dangerously close to him. He'd come this far; he'd survived until now. _I am not going to die!_ he told himself, before rounding a corner and colliding with something.

Aki braced herself, ready to hit the floor as Gray was pushed forwards with great force. The two soldiers fell heavily to the ground in a clatter of armour, but she remained safely in the air, calmly reminding herself that she was in space and that you didn't hit the floor if you were weightless.

'Major?' she asked, somewhat amazed that he'd made it this far. But the soldier didn't answer; he was already stood and ready to run again.

'Hein's right behind me,' he gasped between huge panting breaths. God, he couldn't run anymore; his entire body was on fire. 'Run!' Gray grabbed them both and started to sprint, the reason clear as another figure came tearing around the corner.

_(Leave them! Do not disobey us further!)_

'No! None of you can run!' Hein yelled, seemingly unaware of the blood that gushed from his left temple. 'You won't escape,' Aki felt a jolt as they all stopped. Hein had grabbed Elliot's wrist with his left hand and was pulling them all back with surprising strength. Gray let go of them both, pushing Aki towards the docking hatch which was clear in the background.

'Aki, go,' he ordered, readying to attack. Aki couldn't force herself to move; she was watching Hein and Elliot with a sickened horror that rooted her to the spot. Hein had pushed Elliot back against the wall with his left hand; making sure he couldn't reach the weapon he so desperately needed to get him out of this. The right hand – though oozing something not dissimilar to phantoms when they were injured – was slowly moving; ignoring Elliot's frantic attempts to get free.

'You can't escape death,' Hein whispered; a faint hint of anger tingeing his voice. 'None of us can. We only try to escape the inevitable and cause ourselves more pain,' A crooked smile cracked his lips for a moment. 'But you deserve that pain, for trying to stop us,' And with that, his right hand grabbed the faceplate of Elliot's helmet; slowly sucking the spirit from the resisting soldier.

The spirit appeared to be about halfway between them when Hein suddenly stepped back, dropping the twitching Elliot to the floor. That was when Gray attacked. Aki had been secretly worrying that none of their weaponry would have any effect on Hein; after all, the bioetheric bullets hadn't seemed to even touch him. But the blade of Gray's sword easily sliced through Hein's right hand as he raised it; the inhuman squeal of rage piercing the otherwise silent corridor. The general had just about enough time to glare – half angry, half confused – at Gray, before he was silenced for good.

_(You have failed us. As we knew you would)_

'Aki, come _on_!' Gray yelled, turning on the body and sheathing his sword. 'We don't have any time,' Aki had floated over to Elliot as Gray had confronted Hein, her hands already working to try and loosen his armour.

'We can't leave him,' she muttered, not sure if she wanted to believe what she saw through her headset. Gray obviously didn't notice anything as he grabbed her arm, trying to pull her with him.

'He's dead, Aki. We can't do anythi -- '

'Look harder, Gray! He's not dead,' Gray blinked and studied the fallen Elliot through his helmet, letting out a short gasp. Elliot _was_ alive, but barely.

'How is this. . .?' he murmured.

Elliot had half a spirit.


	17. Touched by Death

_(Why did you disobey us?)_

_What do you mean? What happened?_

_(You did not do as you were told and now death has found you.)_

He wasn't on the plain this time; not the same, familiar plain of their world. This time it was closer, more personal. He had never seen this one with his own eyes; like everyone else he had only caught bare glimpses in faded news reports from the past. To think that, up until recently, he had wanted to wipe this crater off the face of the earth.

_So I'm dead?_

The realisation of it wasn't as painful as he'd thought it would be.

_(You are no longer one of them. Death cannot take you as long as we exist.)_

He suddenly realised that the crater was so quiet; not teeming with phantom activity as he had always thought it would.

_(But you failed us, and so we should leave you.)_

_No!_

He didn't want to be without her again. He didn't think he could survive without her.

_You can't leave me alone. . . Please. . ._

_(You will obey?)_

Of course he would; she knew that.

_(You must stop the other from reaching us. Now that Zeus is gone, we have but one chance to Restore our kind. If the other finds us, we will be stopped and then you will be alone.)_

He couldn't let that happen. He would stop her, and he knew exactly how he was going to do it.

Sid suppressed a slightly exasperated sigh as he stared blankly at the spirit reading before him. He was starting to wish that he hadn't ordered Aki to get some rest; experience told him that trying to solve problems in numbers was a heck of a lot easier than trying to do it alone. The problem in question was what exactly was happening to Major Elliot, and it was one of the most infuriatingly impossible things he had ever tried to work out. Elliot, Aki and Gray had been the only survivors of the mission to Zeus; not long after they had undocked the station had blown, taking everything inside with it. They had arrived in Washington several hours ago, and most of the time between then and now had been spent trying to stabilise the major. He wasn't so bad now – indeed, he didn't look as if he'd suffered a major trauma in the last few hours – but when Sid had first seen him, he had been on the very verge of death. Sid was still having trouble understanding what he had been told about the events on Zeus, especially where Hein was concerned. But he had managed to corner Aki and get her to tell him everything that she had been hiding; the dream, the conversations with the phantoms, the inexplicable connection with Hein, yet even with all the information available, he had no idea how any of this was possible. He had been told that Hein had ripped Elliot's spirit almost entirely from his body, and indeed that had appeared to be the case in the first few hours. But everyone else who had suffered a fate like that had died within minutes; Elliot's condition had actually got better with time. Admittedly, what was left of his spirit was taking an awful long time to realign with his body, but he was recovering, and in Sid's eyes, that was a miracle. At first it had seemed like there was no hope for the major; when they had finally got his helmet off, he had been haemorrhaging all over the place, his eyes bloodshot and unresponsive. It had been obvious that his breathing and heart rates were all over the place, and violent spasms were rocking his body almost constantly. If you had asked him right then and there, Sid would have given him mere moments to live. He certainly wouldn't have expected to be sat here – almost eight hours later – watching over Elliot. His recovery had been remarkably quick; the spasms and haemorrhaging had stopped soon after they had landed, and all the other symptoms had disappeared over the following few hours. There were still a few problems; his vitals still hadn't moved back to acceptable levels, for example, but he was alive, and that was enough.

'Quite incredible,' Sid murmured, moving his attention to the sleeping soldier for a moment. Indeed, he had no signs of the serious injury he had sustained. Sure, he looked a little pale and was having some trouble with his eyes, but apart from that he looked fine. The only way you could tell the severity of his problem was to look at his spirit, which was what Sid was doing right now. At first it had been almost painful to look at; the blue tinge was so faded and pale, and the spirit itself was patchy; as if torn and stretched too thinly over his body. After a while, the colour had intensified back to what Sid would have called a healthy blue, but there was still so little of it. And that wasn't the most worrying thing. It had taken an hour or so for the red patch to appear at the head of the spirit; where Hein had touched the soldier. It had been so small and seemingly insignificant at first, but it had soon started to grow and now occupied the top half of Elliot's spirit. Sid had absolutely no idea what this meant, or what it was going to do to Elliot; except that he didn't think it was a good thing. He didn't think Elliot was infected; well, not in the familiar sense of the word. In the few times that Elliot had spoken, he had never once mentioned any of the classical symptoms of infection. Patients would usually have tight chests, searing pains shooting through their limbs and a near perpetual headache. Elliot said that he felt fine. Exhausted, but otherwise fine.

'It doesn't make any sense,' he muttered, stretching out slightly and standing up. Being stagnant about it wasn't going to help, and besides, he had to check up on the major's current condition. Maybe taking his mind off the confusing spirit pattern for a while would help him think better. He moved slowly to Elliot's side, making sure to check the bio-monitoring system he was hooked up to. His vitals had steadied somewhat again – they were much more stable than before – but were still quite high. _At least he isn't about to die on us,_ Sid thought, making a note of the new vitals.

'Doctor?' Elliot croaked suddenly, his voice sounding strangely raspy and unused. 'Is that. . .?'

'It's Doctor Sid, major,' Sid replied, pausing where he was. 'I thought you were asleep,' Indeed, Elliot had spent most of his time here sleeping, and any time he'd been awake he had always said that he felt tired. Elliot shook his head slowly, draping a hand over his sore eyes to block out the dim light around him.

'I can't sleep. . .'

'If you're in pain,' Sid started, making for the bio-monitor. 'We can help you wit -- '

'No. It's not pain. It's. . .' Sid could just see the soldier's brow furrow. 'I don't know how to explain it. I feel. . . disjointed somehow, as if I'm not myself anymore,' Sid nodded sympathetically.

'I'm afraid that's a common complaint from those who've had their spirits splintered,' Not that those who had suffered that lived to tell the tale. And even if they could speak before they died, they were usually full of gibberish and nonsense. 'It'll pass,' Of course, Sid had no idea if it _would_ pass, but he was hoping it would. A ghost of a smile passed Elliot's lips.

'I hope so. Then at least it'll only feel like I've been hit by one truck instead of two,' Sid smiled as best he could, turning to leave.

'You should try to rest, major. This may get worse before it improves,' Elliot nodded vaguely.

'I'll try, but I'm freezing. Any chance of turning up the heat in here?'

'Alright,' Sid said, hiding the tinge of worry from his voice. This wasn't the first time Elliot had asked that; the room in question was now almost uncomfortably warm. This was a somewhat troubling development; it was as if the soldier's senses were fading. His eyes were causing him trouble, he was having difficulty feeling the heat around him and Sid could tell he was finding it hard to speak. Was that it; was that all that was going to happen? Was Elliot condemned to die slowly as his spirit deteriorated around him, forcing his body to just shut down? _I hope not,_ he thought, sitting back down in front of the chart and frowning at it.

'Any improvement, doc?' Sid turned slowly to see Ryan, followed closely by Gray. The captain looked a little perturbed, as if he had been searching for something and couldn't find it.

'Not really,' Sid replied quietly, turning back to the chart. 'But he's still alive, which is a bonus considering his condition,'

'He'll get through it,' Gray said. 'Isn't Aki here?' Sid shook his head.

'She's supposed to be resting, though knowing her she'll be surreptitiously trying to work this out on her own,' Gray smiled, but his eyes were preoccupied, and Sid got the feeling that there was more than Aki on his mind.

'Probably,' The two soldiers leaned against the nearest wall, Ryan eyeing the spirit pattern as Gray spoke. 'Well, General Aikon sent us here to let you know what was happening,' Sid fixed the soldier with a slight frown. _What was happening?_ Why should anything have changed since he was introduced to Elliot's problem?

'What do you mean?'

'The phantoms,' Ryan said. 'They've gone,' It took Sid a good few moments to absorb that, and even then he wasn't sure if he'd heard the sergeant right.

'They've what?'

'As far as we can tell, they're retreating back to the Leonid crater,' Gray went on. 'It started about an hour after we destroyed Zeus and it's still going on,'

'No-one's being let out of the cities, in case it's a trap. Hell, most people don't even know it's happening,' Sid nodded ever so slightly. Not letting anyone out was a good idea, but what a perplexing turn of events. Never in the thirty-so years since their arrival had the phantoms showed any signs of retreating. Never. Why would the destruction of Zeus cause them to turn tail and run?

'This is a wonderful day for nothing to make sense,' he murmured.

_San Francisco. . . I haven't seen it since the Fall; haven't even tried to think about it. I could have been there when it happened; I could have died along with everyone else. But I didn't._

_It doesn't look much different, it's not as dilapidated as I thought it would be, but this is a dream after all. Why should I have to dream about a destroyed, dead city? Why am I even dreaming about it now? I don't suppose it matters. Sid was right; I was exhausted. I needed to sleep more than I thought I did. But I was afraid to sleep before; afraid of what I would see. At least I don't have to see what _he's _doing now. At least I'm only dreaming about a deserted city and not about what _he's _doing. . . Or rather what he would be doing if he wasn't dead._

_He is dead, isn't he? He didn't get off Zeus before it blew, and besides, he couldn't have survived Gray's attack. I know he died, and yet I know he hasn't. I don't know what it is; what unnerves me so much. I can't even move from where I am because I'm scared. Something isn't right here, and I know he has something to do with it. But. . . He can't. There's no way._

_(You think you ended our struggle?)_

Aki whirled around, feeling like everything was in slow motion as she searched for the source of that sound. The whisper wasn't as raspy as it had been aboard Zeus, but it was much closer than she would have liked.

_(Our struggle shall only end when Gaia is defeated.)_

Darkness seemed to swell around her, blanketing her in an unfathomable black through which she couldn't even see the dull shapes of the buildings around her. Where was he?

_(You're a fool to try and stop us. If you continue; if you try to follow us, we'll destroy your friends one by one.)_

That was why she was in San Francisco. That was where he was. That was why he was stood in front of her, all traces of the phantom invasion gone for the moment.

_(So quiet for a change._ _You're right to be afraid.)_

She hated to even suggest it to herself, but he looked happier than she had ever seen.

_(Don't worry.)_

The faint smile on his face grew ever so slightly.

_(He'll find his way to us; to Terra soon. You won't be alone for long.)_

Footsteps echoed somewhere to her left, and she turned – too slowly – towards the source.

A shrill alarm broke through Sid's thoughts suddenly, forcing him to look up at Elliot; his eyes widening. The major had sat up where he was, hands clutching his head as blood started to seep from his nose.

'What the. . .?' Ryan exclaimed, stepping back as Sid moved forwards.

'We have to try and stabilise him,' he said, gesturing for the two soldiers to lend a hand. Trouble was, he had no idea what was happening to Elliot, and as such he had no real idea how to even start stabilising him. It looked like a cross between a seizure and a haemorrhage, except Sid had never known either to start so suddenly and degrade so sharply.

'Get him on the floor; we can't have him falling off,' he ordered, glancing briefly at the bio-monitor and allowing a deep frown to form. According to the machine, there _were_ no vital signs; it was as if Elliot was already dead.

'Find them. . .' Elliot whispered, bleeding eyes wide open and staring at the ceiling. 'Won't be alone. . . Won't be. . .'

'What's going on?' Gray demanded, his eyes betraying his worry.

A figure suddenly staggered around the corner, looking and sounding as if he had been running from something that terrified him. The figure itself was vague and undefined at first; nothing more than a blur against the dark background as it flickered in and out of vision. But then it began to clear a little and Aki felt herself gasp.

'What have you done to him?' she hissed, unable to move her gaze as Elliot stared back at her.

'Doctor Ross. . .?'

_(What horrifies you so much? What happens to him is no different to what will happen to you or us; it's a little cruder perhaps, but no different.)_

'Just hold him there, captain,' Sid said, readying an adrenaline shot. How could Elliot be dead and yet still struggling so much? 'Make sure he can't hurt himself on the -- ' A second alarm went off, drowning out the first; creating so much noise that Sid almost couldn't hear himself think.

Elliot suddenly went limp, and then everything went quiet.

_(Don't you see? We saved him from the death he so obviously feared)_

Elliot was now completely visible in front of her; glancing uneasily from her to Hein and back again.

'What's. . .? General. . .?' Aki wanted to tell him to run; to get away before something happened to him, but she knew it was futile.

_(You see, some people don't want the peace of death. They want to – need to – suffer. They choose this so they in turn can justify the suffering they cause others.)_

He walked over to the perplexed looking Elliot, who wore an expression halfway between terror and confusion. Aki tried to move forwards to stop Hein; to do something to save Elliot from whatever was going to happen now, but the look in Hein's eyes stopped her in her tracks. They were so full of purpose; of a determination that scared her. It might have been fear that stopped her from moving; that was holding her so still and so tightly.

'G-general?' Elliot stuttered, remembering the last time he had been backed up against a wall. Hein just smiled as he reached the soldier, eyeing him almost sympathetically.

_(You'll make others suffer, to lessen your pain because you won't have peace, and you'll be so alone.)_

With a wry grin, he put a hand on Elliot's shoulder. The other soldier stiffened suddenly; his entire body going rigid even after Hein removed his hand. What seemed like an eternity went past before he relaxed, collapsing to his knees and letting out the most pained scream Aki had ever heard in her life. And that was the last thing she heard; the sound echoing through her mind as everything around her went bright white.

It didn't take any of them too much time to come to the conclusion that Elliot was dead, but none of them moved for a good few minutes. Sid couldn't help but frown as he stared down at the soldier's unseeing eyes, the expression only deepening as he noticed something; a flicker around the edge of Elliot's form. Ryan noticed it too, crouching down to get a closer look.

'Did you see that?' he asked, pausing only when it happened again. 'What's. . .?' Sid had little chance to answer as the entire image of Elliot flickered. All three of them stood and watched in amazement as – much to Sid's horror – Elliot's body began to fade. It was as if someone was taking an eraser to him, rubbing him out from the outside in; his whole body becoming a translucent ghost of what it had once been.

'This isn't right,' Gray murmured, edging himself in between Sid and Elliot. 'Alright, doc. To the door, nice and slow. Ryan, you come on too,' Sid glanced from the spectacle in front of him for a moment, glancing at the spirit chart. It was completely red; there was no trace of anything even resembling blue in it anymore. A strange thought hit him. _What if this is some different kind of infection; one that not only results in the death of the patient, but also. . ._

The thought got no further as Elliot disappeared completely, the very edges of his form barely visible to the naked eye. Sid watched one of these edges with some interest as he and Gray moved to the door; Ryan not far behind. Yes, getting out of here was a very good idea.

'Alright,' Gray started, keenly watching the still form. 'We're going to get out of this room and then Ryan is going to escort Sid to the exits as fast as you can. I'm going to get Jane and Neil and we're going to make sure this thing doesn't get out of here, right?' Ryan and Sid nodded vaguely.

'Uhh. . . We might want to hurry up with that idea,' Ryan said edgily. 'Cause that "dead" body just moved,'

All it knew was pain; there was nothing except that sharp, searing agony that swept over it in wave after wave. It lay there for a moment, not knowing – or caring – where it was or why it was. All it wanted to do was stop the pain; to find something other than the hurt.

It felt something; something outside its being, something warm and comforting. Looking up, it barely caught sight of the three blue ethereal glows as they tried to get away. Why were they leaving? Didn't they know how much pain it was in? Didn't they know that they were all that could soothe the agony? It needed to take those blue glows in its embrace; to take the warmth and comfort for itself before the pain became too much. It had to do something.

It got up slowly, unused to the swirling distortion of reality around it. All it could feel was pain, all it could hear was silence.

And all it wanted was them.

Gray just heard the crash of the bio-monitor hitting the floor as he ushered Sid and Ryan in front of him.

'Get Sid out of here, now,' he ordered, not watching as Ryan nodded and began to move Sid along towards the nearest exit. His mind was racing; he had to alert the base to the situation at hand, he had to get to Neil and Jane and hope that they would be able to deal with whatever had happened to Elliot. Most importantly, he had to find Aki. He hadn't spent long in Washington during his term of service, and as such had no idea about the layout of the base. He didn't have the first clue where to start searching for her. _Maybe Neil'll be able to figure it out,_ he thought, pausing where he was and casting a hurried glance over his shoulder. The corridor looked completely clear; something that didn't help ease his worry. _Damnit, he could be stood right in front of me and I wouldn't realise,_ he thought, growling at the empty space and turning to run in what he hoped was the direction of the nearest guard station. Jane had mentioned something about guard duty to him before he had left to find Aki and a part of him was hoping she had made good on that threat.

'Why'd you sign us up for this anyway? You know I _hate_ guard duty,' Gray had never been so pleased to hear Neil whine in his whole life. He barrelled around the corner, too glad to see that both soldiers had their full armour on to notice the raised eyebrows he was getting. _At least they'll be able to see it. Well. . . If Elliot still has a spirit, that is,_

'Neil; get back to command and tell them we have a phantom loose on this level,' That was the best way he could think of to describe Elliot to them without raising too much confusion.

'A phantom? What -- ?'

'Just go,' Gray ordered again, pausing only to grab the smaller soldier by the arm. 'Give me your helmet,' Elliot shouldn't have been able to overtake him in such a short time; Neil would be safe without being able to detect him.

'Uhh. . . Alright,' Neil murmured uncertainly, handing it over and frowning at Gray slightly before turning and running in the opposite direction. Gray pulled the helmet on, scanning around him quickly for any trace of anything unusual.

'Are you alright, sir?' Jane asked tentatively, wondering if fatigue and too much work had finally sent Gray over the edge.

'I can't explain it now, Jane,' Gray muttered, suddenly feeling very vulnerable without his sword. 'We're just going to go back to the labs and make sure this thing can't escape, alright?'

'. . . Alright, sir,' First a phantom, then a thing? Jane knew when she was being messed around, but she also knew when not to ask questions. All she could do was shrug lightly and follow Gray as he began to make his way back down the corridor.

'We should be outta here in a sec,' Ryan said as he led Sid through yet another long, straight passage. This was the first time he had realised just how alike every single corridor inside a military base was. It made escaping in a hurry a pain in the --

'Wait,' Though it was the last thing he wanted to do right now, Ryan paused where he was, turning to look back at the old man.

'I'm not moving too fast, am I?' he asked, half-apologetically. He hadn't thought he was going too hard, but like Gray had told him once, he never was aware of just how much quicker than everyone else he moved. Sid shook his head, turning around himself to look back the way they had come.

'We have to go back and get Aki,' he said quietly, anticipating the shake of Ryan's head before the soldier did.

'The captain'll be able to get her, doc. We can't risk going back,' He saw the gleam of determination in Sid's eyes and knew he wasn't going to win this particular battle. _Damn!_

'What if he doesn't?' Sid countered. 'I can't very well run away and leave her, especially not when she has no idea what's going on,' That was a lie, Sid told himself. She probably had a better idea of what had happened than he could ever hope to have. Ryan let out an exasperated breath.

'You know exactly where she is?' Going back on Gray's orders wasn't exactly his favourite past-time, but he got the feeling that Sid wasn't going to come along quietly without Aki. Besides, the scientist was right; they couldn't just leave Aki and hope that Gray would find her in time. She would be an easy target if she was asleep.

'Of course,' Sid said, already starting to walk back the way they'd come. 'I have better things to do than get lost during a time of mortal danger,' Ryan shook his head, jogging to catch up with the older man.

'Alright, but we go straight in and get back out as fast as we can, alright? Getting lost is one thing, but getting trapped is a whole other area,'

Such an ocean of comfort so far away. It could sense so many spirits; so much warmth, and yet they were all so far away. It didn't think it could get that far; it didn't think what it now called its body would last that long before crumpling under the pain. There were others, but they were so spread out; so far apart. It didn't know which way to turn; which spirit to embrace first. It was confused; everything was so chaotic and untidy. What was it supposed to do?

_(That one)_

One; different from the rest. One touched by what had touched it. One who was close, who was so vulnerable and weakened. She would lessen the pain; she would make it all go away.

Ryan was quite surprised by how quickly Sid could move when he was full of purpose. It had taken them nearly ten minutes to reach the outskirts of the medical centre, yet after only five more minutes they were back where they started. The labs seemed so much more eerie and quiet now that Ryan knew there was something un-natural stalking them; something that couldn't be seen before it attacked. He vaguely remembered the stories his father had told him about the times before spirits had been discovered; how soldiers would fall so suddenly without warning and how entire squads had been lost simply because they couldn't see what was hunting them. He was beginning to understand what those soldiers had gone through.

'Maybe this wasn't such a good idea,' he muttered as Sid led him back towards the lab they had just run away from. 'I mean, we can't even see whatever it is that Elliot is now. What if he's hostile?' Sid let out a light sigh, shrugging.

'If we die, I'll fully understand if you want to blame me,' he said with the slightest hint of mirth. Ryan smiled a little, shaking his head.

'Gotcha. Are we close?' Sid nodded, silently pointing to one of the private rooms that lay sealed off from the others.

'She should be in there, providing she hasn't wandered off,' They both knew that with Aki, wandering off was an entirely realistic possibility.

'Alright. You stay here, doc. I'll go get her,' Sid nodded, crouching down as low as he could by the wall and watching intently as Ryan loped silently towards the door. In all truth, he was worried about Elliot being hostile, and about what he would do. The spirit pattern – the completely red one – wasn't far off what a phantom spirit looked like. If what Aki had told him – about Hein's spirit pattern being part red – was true, then they could have a very serious problem on their hands. If Hein could take spirits, then could Elliot?

He blinked away that train of thought as Ryan reached the door; looking carefully all around him before reaching for the handle.

It was so close to her; staring over her warm spirit when it felt something else. Something else close; too close. Was the new one here to stop it; cause it more pain when all it wanted was release? No. No, it would not be stopped. It would not end in so much pain. Perhaps it could wait for her spirit. Perhaps the new one would suffice.

_No! Leave him alone!_

A new voice; one full of the warmth and comfort that it craved. It paused, unsure of what to do.

_(Take it. Otherwise the pain will never cease.)_

_Don't do it. Please don't, Elliot, please!_

Such a familiar name, and with that familiarity came fresh pain; washing over it in waves, making it double over where it stood.

_(You always suffered. Why stop now?)_

Why stop?

_No! Don't do it!_

Why stop when the cure was right in front of it?

Sid saw the faint flicker in the dim light appear as Ryan pushed open the door. He realised what it was, but his voice seemed stuck in his throat and he couldn't make a sound. He couldn't even move as he watched the soldier duck out of the way; desperately trying to evade whatever had lunged at it. It all happened in an instant; no sooner had Ryan hit the floor than Sid realised he was on his feet, rushing frantically to try and do something; anything. But it was far too late. What remained of Elliot turned towards him; the light distortion strengthened somewhat by the fresh new spirit it had taken. Sid didn't know what to do; for the first time in his life, he didn't know what to do. He had to save Aki. He had to --

An icy cold flash later, and everything ended.


	18. Goodbyes

Sid still couldn't believe what had happened. The Phantom-Elliot had been right there; ready to claim his spirit as it had done Ryan's. But the cool embrace of the phantom had never appeared; when Sid had opened his eyes, he had been most relieved to find Jane stood not ten feet away; her outstretched palms still frosty. Years of medical training had kicked in, and his first thought had been to tend to Ryan, even though he knew it was already too late.

Everything since then had passed by in something of a blur to him; he was getting a little too old to be having brushes with death and surviving. Aki had awoken from her deep slumber almost the second Elliot had disintegrated; she looked at Ryan and her eyes said all that she couldn't. Since then, the group had split up; Gray and the others were taking care of Ryan and the whole mess that this situation had created with the Washington command. Aki had retreated to one of the medical labs, saying simply that she wanted to be alone for a while. Sid had no doubt that she knew more about all of this than the rest of them; he was beginning to form some sort of theory as to what caused her connection with Hein, but he still didn't know enough to draw any sort of true hypothesis. Despite his urge to question her further, he had honoured her wishes and taken himself to the ship. It was the only place where he knew he wasn't going to be disturbed by anyone; most of the military would be worrying about the new developments outside the cities. Even though the thought of the Phantoms retreating back to the crater was supposed to be a good one, Sid couldn't help but feel a little troubled by the news. Everything he thought he knew about the enemy had been thoroughly disproved in the last few days. Until recently, the general consensus had been that the Phantoms were bloodthirsty monsters; that they just attacked on instinct and never had any real strategy. But this latest development. . . Sid couldn't help but think that they were doing it for a reason; there had to be some sort of explanation as to why they were going back to the crater.

He sighed deeply, rubbing the bridge of his nose with two fingers. He supposed he should get back to the labs; a mere brush with death shouldn't stand in the way of locating the next spirit. He couldn't just sit back and hope that the withdrawal of the Phantoms was a permanent thing. After all, Aki was still relying on him to save her. But he couldn't; not right now. He just. . . needed to think for a few hours. Too much was troubling him; too much was casting a shadow over him.

His thought paused for a moment as he heard a distinct _click_ somewhere behind him; like the sound of someone stepping softly on the metal floor. Another sigh escaped him, but he didn't move. Maybe it was just a tech or something; someone who would quickly check on the status of the ship and leave.

'Oh,' He turned as soon as he heard the voice, half-surprised to see Aki stood in the doorway of the cockpit. 'I didn't think anyone would be here,' Sid smiled slightly, gesturing to the seat beside him.

'That's what I thought,' he said. 'Great minds, eh?' Aki managed a small smile, hesitating for a moment before slowly sliding into the seat. Sid couldn't help but notice that she looked awfully pale; drained almost. He could only imagine what she was feeling.

'Are you alright, Aki?' he asked.

'I should be asking you the same thing,' she replied. 'I'm not the one who was inches away from death today,' Sid knew when she was trying to deflect attention away from her, and usually he played along with it. Not now; not when she looked so low.

'Ah, but I'm not the one who's inches away from death most of the time,' She turned away from him, her eyes moving to stare firmly at one of the control panels.

'I'm fi --' she started, trailing off as Sid shook his head.

'Please, Aki. You know I can't do anything unless you tell me what's wrong. Let someone help _you_ for a change,' She remained silent, an almost hollow look in her eyes. Sid reached out and placed one hand on her shoulder. 'Please,'

'You can't help,' she said quietly. 'No-one can. Not with this,'

'I can try,' She shook her head.

'No. It's too. . .' She looked up at him for a moment. 'Too many people have already died because of me. I don't want to make anyone else suffer,' Sid paused a moment, watching as she went back to staring at the controls before her.

'None of this is your fault,' he started, unable to finish as her face suddenly crumpled into a fierce glare.

'Yes it is. If it wasn't for me, he wouldn't have done that to Elliot. He only did it because of me,' She shook her head, tears in her eyes. 'I have to stop him on my own; I can't put everyone else in danger anymore,' There was a long silence between them. Sid had worried that Aki would find some way to blame herself for all of this; that she would try to isolate herself from them all so as not to place them in danger. He now realised that she had come to the ship with the intention of leaving as quickly and quietly as she could, making sure that none of them found out until she was long gone.

'He is the one to blame for this,' he started slowly. He wouldn't let her beat herself up over some psychopath who should have been locked up years ago. 'Not you. Don't believe a word he says,'

'But he --'

'Trust me, Aki,' he went on firmly. 'General Hein is not someone who should be placing blame on others; not after everything he's done,' He couldn't hide the tinge of anger he always so carefully disguised when Hein was being discussed. As if sensing this, Aki looked up at him, doing her best to smile ever so slightly.

'You're right,' she said. 'Of course you are,' The silence that followed was not entirely comfortable, but neither could think of anything to say. The mere mention of Hein made Aki more uneasy than she had thought it would, and Sid's sudden change in demeanour didn't help her nerves. So she sat and stared at the controls before her, a part of her still wishing that the older scientist hadn't been sat here when she had arrived. Now she had no chance of leaving alone. Why couldn't Sid see that by sticking with her he was essentially putting himself at more risk than she could bear? She could still feel the horror that had attacked her when she realised that he had been mere moments away from death at Elliot's hands. She didn't know what she would have done had he been taken too; she didn't want to know what she would have done. She wasn't entirely sure what she was going to do now. She knew where Hein was, and she knew that she had to do something about him. But. . . what could she do alone? And what about the spirits? There were still three left to find; without her, would Sid be able to find them all in time? It was all too painful to think about; would she follow her heart and go after Hein or follow her head and find the other spirits?

She sighed deeply, finally tearing her gaze from the blinking panel and turning to look at her mentor.

'What are we going to do now?' she asked, knowing he probably had no more of an idea than she did. He smiled.

'We? Does that mean you're not going to leave the old man on his own?' Aki couldn't help but smirk, shrugging slightly.

'I guess it does. But that doesn't answer my question,' For a moment, he looked at a loss.

'I suppose,' he started. 'That we should find the next spirit,' Aki nodded slowly, allowing the smallest sigh to escape her. This prompted Sid to frown. 'Unless you have any other suggestions?' Aki remained silent for the longest moment, her gut instinct to end this now battling with the knowledge that the other spirits _had_ to be found. Every time she decided to go along one path, some little niggle told her it was the wrong thing to do. She couldn't do both, yet both had to be done.

'The spirits have to be found,' she said quietly. 'But. . . San Francisco,' Sid frowned.

'What about it?'

'That's where Hein is,' she replied shortly; that was the only way she could stop herself from exploding with anger again. Sid's frown deepened. Wasn't Hein supposed to be dead?

'How do you know?' he asked, his tone more disbelieving than curious. Aki shrugged slightly.

'I had another dream about him,' That would have to serve as an explanation for now; she was in no mood to discuss it further. Sid remained silent for a moment, but then;

'You want to go to him, don't you?' Aki looked down for a moment, a slightly sheepish expression crossing her face.

'I. . . I feel like I _have_ to,' There was another somewhat uneasy silence between them, this time lingering longer than either of them would have liked. Aki chanced a brief glance up towards the older scientist. 'He has to be stopped, Sid,' It took a moment, but finally, Sid nodded; a heavy sigh escaping his lips.

'You shouldn't have to be the one to stop him,' he said simply, standing and resting a hand gently on her shoulder. 'But I know that you'll try to, whether I help you or not,' Something of a smile and he began to move towards the entrance to the cockpit. Aki twisted around in her seat, fixing him with an inquisitive frown. Surely he wasn't abandoning her? She wouldn't blame him if he did, but. . . Well, she would never expect Sid to do anything like that.

'Where are you going?' He turned back.

'I need to collect some things. I hope you won't be running off without me,' Aki felt herself shaking her head, even through the relief.

'No, Sid. You shouldn't come with me,' Sid smiled; one of those warm smiles she had seen so much before the war and the council had really started getting him down.

'I'm not about to let my best student, and the closest thing I have to family, run off to confront some homicidal psychopath on her own,' The smile faded just a touch. 'And besides, who else will?'

It had been a long time since she'd been to a funeral. It was almost five years now; three friends of hers from the academy who had all been part of the same nest-clearing operation. She hadn't wanted to go; funerals were never her thing. They were beginning to seem slightly pointless these days; once you finished mourning one friend you usually had to start grieving for another. No. It was easier to just avoid all of that; to concentrate on living your own life.

But she couldn't miss this one. There was no way she'd allow herself to miss this one.

So, she stood on the edge of the crowd, leaning against the stone pillar beside her, watching in silence. She'd never thought that Ryan would have been the first to die; he'd always been the sensible one, the one who looked before he leapt into action. She'd always thought it would have been her; hell, it almost _had_ been her. If it wasn't for Doctor Ross, the Deep Eyes would have been mourning two lost soldiers instead of one. In fact, if it wasn't for Doctor Ross, who knew how many others would have fallen to whatever it was that had taken Ryan? Gray had mumbled something about a Phantom, but in the middle of a secure unit, at a time when there _were_ no Phantoms? Jane wasn't stupid, but she had no real desire to go and seek out the real answer just yet. Maybe in time, when it stopped hurting to think about it.

She heard the footsteps approaching, not bothering to turn and greet the newcomer. It wouldn't be anyone she wanted to talk to anyway; the Captain was stood near the head of the crowd, that grim expression on his face he always got when he was truly upset. And Neil? Neil hadn't come. In fact, she hadn't seen much of the tech since he'd come rushing back to the labs with a group of very perplexed Washington soldiers and found her and Gray knelt over the body of their comrade. Well, he'd always been sensitive. Maybe being alone helped him deal with it.

'They never used to do mass funerals like this, y'know,' Jane didn't turn, but she had to let her eyes widen slightly. Well, speak of the devil and he'd try to creep up on you.

'Back when the Phantoms were new, they used to have one funeral for each person. It was a real boom for funeral directors and churches and things, because there were so many people dying and so many others wanting to remember them in that special little way,' He'd moved around her now, and was stood beside her, watching the proceedings with almost an amused expression on his face. 'Funerals used to be _the_ business to get into. That was, until the economy collapsed because so many people were dying,' The priest was getting close to the coffin that held Ryan; the simple box distinguishable by the pair of Monk's gloves placed on top. 'That was when the government decided to start pooling its resources; you weren't allowed to have anything of your own anymore. Not even a funeral,' She could just see him shake his head slightly out of the corner of her eye. Odd. She hadn't known him to be this coherent and sensible since. . . well, ever.

'I didn't know you were a history buff,' she murmured. He turned towards her, his trademark smirk a ghost of what it usually was.

'I'm a sucker for useless knowledge,' Jane didn't bother smiling; try as he might, not even Neil could cheer her up right now. Still, it felt somewhat comforting to have him here; it was better to mourn with someone rather than mourn alone.

'I thought you weren't coming,' She watched him shrug slightly again.

'I can't really let the sarge leave without saying goodbye,' he replied, watching the proceedings a little more intently now. 'Not that this is really saying goodbye. A bunch of people standing around watching as they cremate bodies one by one isn't what I would call a great way of saying farewell,' As no-one could really go outside to bury people and the land inside the barrier cities was too valuable to fill with dead people, cremation had become the standard way of disposing of the dead. Mind you, you couldn't always find the dead. Most of the people who died were soldiers, killed on missions outside the cities. The military always told you to save yourself rather than waste time extracting the body of one of your colleagues, and most soldiers obeyed. It was likely that most of the 40 or so coffins in front of Jane now were empty

'How would you do it then?' she asked, finally turning to look at him. Neil shrugged.

'There wouldn't be any point in changing it now,' he said quietly. 'But we can't spend so much time worrying about those who are already dead, y'know?' He had a funny way of putting it, but Jane knew what he meant. 'I mean, if you let your mind become so preoccupied with death and all that, then you're gonna be distracted. And being distracted is a good way to get dead these days,' Jane remained silent for a moment, turning back to face forwards. There was one coffin between the priest and Ryan now.

'Some people would call you cold for saying that,' She could just see him smile slightly.

'I've been called a lot of things, but that's the first time that one's been used,' The priest had reached Ryan now, reciting the same passage he had recited for probably the last ten years. Jane couldn't help but wonder if the clergy felt anything for the people they were committing to the afterlife, or whether it was all just another job to be done.

There was silence between them for a long minute, both soldiers watching as the priest moved onto the next box. _Well, that's it,_ Jane thought, just resisting the urge to turn away as the aides following the priest moved to pick up the box, carrying it solemnly out of sight. _He's gone now,_ The thought wasn't as painful as she thought it would be, but then who wasn't used to losing people these days?

They watched the rest of the funeral quietly, more out of respect for the remaining coffins than anything else. When the priest had finally blessed the last box, Jane found herself turning to Neil.

'So what do we do now?' Neil opened his mouth to speak, but paused as he noticed something over Jane's shoulder.

'I think you should ask the Captain, not me,' How he managed to sound so chirpy was beyond Jane, but she forgot that for the moment and turned around, waiting for Gray to reach them.

'I hope we don't have to do that again for a while,' Gray murmured, sounding a little more preoccupied than Jane might have expected. 'I spoke with General Aikon before the ceremony and he wants us to stick with the doctors,' Jane nodded slowly; she'd thought that might be the case. Sure, the Phantoms might have done a disappearing act, but there was no guarantee that it was for good. Since they'd lost Zeus, the military suddenly seemed quite fond of Dr Sid's spirit wave and no doubt they wanted the project to continue to its conclusion as quickly as possible.

'Well, it's better than sitting around and waiting for the Phantoms to jump out from wherever they're hiding,' Neil said, earning something of a stare from Gray. The Thief did his best to look innocent. 'What?' Gray shook his head.

'Come on. We'd better go and let them know,'

Aki couldn't help but look back a little guiltily as she loaded the final few pieces of equipment aboard the Black Boa. Gray and the others should still be at Ryan's funeral; something she'd wanted to go to until she'd realised that making a quick getaway without them would be the best thing for all concerned. Part of her felt so cruel for not having gone to the ceremony, and the rest of her. . . Well, part of her wanted to find Gray right now, find him and tell him to stay by her. Now she was on the very brink of leaving him behind again, she was realising just how lonely it had been last time. These last few weeks in his company had been more wonderful than she would have imagined; just having him near again. But, as much as she wanted him with her, she just couldn't force him into danger. _It's his job to throw himself into danger,_ a little voice said sternly. _Besides, he volunteered to help protect you. He knew what he was getting himself into,_ That little voice spoke more sense than Aki wanted to admit, but she couldn't let herself listen to it. _He doesn't deserve to die for me,_ she thought. _No-one does,_ No. It was best to leave him here, best to leave them all behind.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Sid, wearing the same expression she probably was.

'Are you sure you want to go now?' he asked, his tones showing his doubt. Aki shook her head.

'No, but. . .' She sighed. If she didn't leave now, the doubt would make her wait for them. 'We have to go,' Sid nodded slowly and Aki felt grateful for the lack of an argument. As long as she wasn't truly alone. . . Well, it made the near future a lot more bearable.

'I'll go start the ship,' Sid said, giving her a faint smile and turning away. 'We should be out of here in a few moments,' Aki nodded, turning to take one last look at the empty hangar behind her. Her brow furrowed as she noticed someone – well, three someones – striding out towards the ship.

'It couldn't. . .' she murmured, squinting slightly to get a better look.

'Hey, Doctor Ross!' The unmistakable cry of Corporal Fleming rang throughout the quiet hangar, filling Aki with something halfway between dread and elation. Why were they here? Why had they come back? And. . . why was she glad?

'I'd hold off leaving for a moment, Sid,' she said into the nearest communicator. 'Looks like we have company,' By now Neil had reached the ship, Gray and Jane following closely behind. All looked tired and worn out, but – to Aki's surprise – none were wearing the looks of accusation of hate that her paranoia had made her expect.

'Weren't planning on leaving without us, were you?' Gray asked. He sounded casual enough, but Aki had been around him long enough to know when he was upset. Neil and Jane obviously had too, the two exchanging a look before making some excuse about checking whether the cockpit still had the same seats.

'I suppose General Aikon told you to follow us,' Aki said, silently hoping that was the only reason Gray had come. The soldier frowned slightly.

'He did, but that's not why we're here,' Aki remained silent, pretending to examine some piece of equipment. Gray's frown deepened. 'You were going to leave without us, weren't you?' Aki built up the courage to look up at him; to look him straight in the eye. She didn't want to say the words; she didn't want to admit it.

'We have to hurry,' she said quietly; blankly almost, before looking back down at the floor and hurrying out of the cargo area. Gray watched her go, unable to dispel the frown.

'You have to start thinking of yourself, Aki,' he murmured. 'Stop worrying about everyone else,'


	19. San Francisco

**Author note:** It's been a while since I last wrote anything substantial, so this may have a tendency to waffle and not get to the point. I apologise for that; still trying to get used to the world and putting words together in proper sentences. But, I needed to do this and get it up as it represents a pretty massive sticking point for me; it's only taken me nearly 6 years to do this one chapter!

So bear with it. I'm hoping it'll get better.

.

It was raining. He hadn't felt rain in so long, he doubted any living thing on the planet had for years. He had to resist the urge to close his eyes, tip his head back and just let it wash over him; let it wash away everything that he couldn't let go of. There was no way back, he knew that now, but even if there were, he wouldn't take it. She was waiting for him. He wanted to go to her so much; every second he was apart from her, the pain in his chest grew and the missing part of his soul seemed to grow more and more jagged. But he had to finish what she'd started. He had to do what she asked. He had to swallow his pride and his desire for revenge. Not long now. They'd be together soon.

He idly wondered how long it had been since someone had last walked along this road. Not since the Fall, he supposed. He couldn't stop the involuntary shudder that shot down his spine as he thought of that. He knew they were safe, that they were at peace, but still he shook at the thought of the Fall. Long held associations took a long time to shake free.

_(Have you found it yet?)_

He paused where he was, steel gray eyes surveying his surroundings. He had been walking around the ruins for hours now, searching for any sign of life and then snuffing it out.

'I don't think so,' he murmured. 'But I'll find it before they do,'

_(She is coming.)_

He knew that. He knew what Aki knew; what she felt; what she thought.

_(Do not let her distract you. The Restoration will do what you could not.)_

He sighed, feeling shame burn across his face. He had done nothing but fail so far. She had given him wonderful powers, brought him back from death, given him hope and purpose, and all he had done was let her down. He let his hands tighten into fists. Not this time. This time he would make her proud.

He wouldn't fail.

.

The trip to San Francisco was silent, for the most part. Neil tried some muted mumbling with Jane, but gave up when it became apparent that the mage didn't want to talk. Aki could feel Gray staring at her, could almost hear everything he wanted to ask her, but she was glad for the silence. She had no idea if she was even doing the right thing. The guilt and the pain of knowing that everyone else was putting themselves into mortal danger because of her was almost too much for her to bear. She hoped that she was wrong, she hoped that the vision of Hein in the ruins of his former home had just been a hallucination; just a reaction to the stress and the horror of the last week. But deep down, she knew it was the truth. She and the general were inexplicably connected now. She just had to try and stop herself from taking his path.

'We should be there in ten minutes,' Sid's voice was low, but the sound was like a thundercrash through the silence. Gray nodded swiftly, sitting up in his seat. Neither scientist had mentioned much about why they were headed to San Francisco, and neither of them seemed to have a plan. If he had to lead them through this, then he would.

'Is the next spirit here?' he asked quietly, directing his question at Sid while keeping an eye on Aki. Her jaw tightened slightly as he spoke, but she otherwise didn't move. The older scientist tapped a few buttons on the console before him.

'I haven't been able to perform a detailed scan on the area yet, so we really have no clue,' Gray let himself frown slightly.

'If you're not sure, then why are we here?' Sid gave a weak smile.

'We have to start somewhere, Captain,'

'We're here because Hein's here,' Gray had opened his mouth to argue with Sid, but had stopped dead when Aki spoke.

'That can't be right,' Jane started. 'You said he was on Zeus when it blew,'

'He was,' Gray murmured, his eyes on Aki. 'He couldn't have survived that, Aki,' She shook her head, and he suddenly noticed she was so much paler than he remembered. The shocks of the last few days would have been enough to knock a normal, healthy person off their feet. He had no idea how she managed to cope while infected.

'He didn't survive,' She spoke quietly, but they could all hear the tremor in her voice. 'But it brought him back,' Gray moved from where he was to sit in front of her, taking her hands in his.

'Aki,' he started softly. 'He's dead. He has to -- '

'He's alive,' The anger suddenly in her voice was surprising. 'I can feel him. He's searching for something, something important,' She shook her head, staring back down at the floor. 'I don't know what, but it's here and it's important and we have to find it before he does,' There was an uneasy silence at that, punctuated only by the soft beeps of Sid's machine. The older scientist let out a sudden exasperated sigh, shaking his head as he looked at the results of the scan.

'I think I know what he's looking for, though how he knows it's here is beyond me,' Aki stood, breaking contact with Gray to read the results for herself.

'The seventh spirit is here,'

.

It didn't take long for them to land, though they weren't able to position the ship as close to the weakened signal from the spirit as Aki would have liked. Decay had set into the ruins with relish, and there was just too much debris for them to get the ship within a mile of the spirit. Aki and the three Deep Eyes had taken their weapons and decided to head to the signal on foot, while Sid kept the ship out of harm's way so that he might be able to extract them quickly once they had the spirit. Aki couldn't shake the horrible, cold sense of foreboding that swept over her as they crept through the ruins. She had lived in this city when she was younger, she had known people who had died here; whole families who had been wiped out when the city Fell. She had never wanted to come back here, the feelings and sensations were almost too much to bear.

And that was before you added in the dark feeling in the back of her mind; the one she knew didn't belong to herself. She could feel him watching, she could feel him listening. She had no idea how to stop him, and no idea how to do the same to him. It seemed like he had so much more control over their "connection". He seemed to be able to look into her mind at will; he wasn't subject to the random and sudden shifts in reality that she was. She wondered if it were to do with his acceptance of the infection within, but she quickly changed her train of thought as she felt a tiny smile in that dark place. _Stay out of my head!_ she thought, her eyes flicking down to her tracking device. Though they had landed a mile or so away from the spirit, it seemed that their route was a fairly straight and easy one. She hardly needed to consult the device at all. The dark little feeling merely continued to feel amused, but it didn't change any further. She let herself scowl and tried to shake all thoughts of him from her mind.

'You alright?' Beside her, Gray had noticed her internal struggle, but he couldn't interfere. What could he do? Aki wouldn't talk to him unless he forced her, and even then he didn't get anything. He never knew what he had done to make her not trust him. So much had changed.

'I'm fine,' she said, a little colder than she intended. 'He's here though. I can. . . feel him,' Gray nodded, keeping his eyes on their surroundings. He honestly had no idea what they could do if Hein did show up here. The man had single-handedly taken on four squads of troops and had only been injured when he let himself get distracted. Gray had full faith in his soldiers, but he had seen the thing that Hein had become. He had no idea if they were just walking to their deaths.

.

It didn't take long for them to reach a small clearing in the rubble. There were a few rotted benches on the far side, beside a great, gnarled stump of what had been a tree. Gray guessed this would have been a park before the Fall. Not a big park - space was at a premium even in big cities like San Francisco - but a nice space to come and relax in. That was part of what he hated about being outside the barrier cities. You could see the devastation first-hand. Sometimes it made him wonder if there was anything left to save.

'Have you found it?' He, Jane and Neil had taken up points in a triangle around Aki, who had knelt down by a patch of stubby, tired-looking grass. There was no sign of any danger, but he was feeling increasingly uneasy the longer they stayed here.

'You're a little too late, doctor,'

They all whirled towards the source of the sound, Aki allowing herself to grimace as she saw Hein stood there, the dark little sensation in the back of her head flaring suddenly. She steeled herself against the pain; she wouldn't show weakness in front of him. His appearance had almost returned to normal; though his eyes were different; darker, and he still had that red glow outlining his form. The edges of his clothes were beginning to get ragged, and the skin on his right hand was looking blistered and sore, and his spirit. . . There was still the tired blue and the angry red, but they had started to merge somewhat, giving his spirit a dirty, painful purple tinge. Something about it made her feel nauseous when she looked at it; it was just inherently wrong. She couldn't help but wonder if he still had the same abilities as before.

'Don't you dare move, general,' Jane snarled, her fingertips flexing menacingly. Hein kept staring at Aki as though none of the others even existed.

'You're looking for this?' He unfurled his clenched left fist to reveal a flower; a tired, tiny white lily that had obviously been ripped from the ground. Aki gasped slightly as she stared at the flower through her headset; it's spirit was a blazing blue, showing no ill effect from having been taken from the ground. Somehow, he had found the seventh spirit. Somehow, he knew.

'How did you. . ?' She couldn't help but ask the question. Hein smiled slightly.

'It hurts. It hurts us. And if we kill it, then you fail,' The smile grew wider and took on something of a fanatical twinge. 'And then the Restoration will occur, and I'll see her again,' Aki shot a look over at Gray; the soldier taking the hint and signalling subtley to the others to get ready. _We need that spirit,_ Aki thought, slowly reaching for the new piece of equipment Sid had prepared for her. Realising that the process of collecting the spirits was becoming too slow, he had found a way to quickly copy the spirit and insert it directly into her chestplate, where it could be uploaded to the main research hub later. This meant that not only did she not have to take the spirit samples with her, thereby wasting precious time that could be spent running away from threats, but she could also take the sample at a distance. She just had to stop Hein from destroying the sample first.

'This is the beginning of the end,' _Damn him,_ Aki thought bitterly. He sounded almost glad. 'The end of suffering and the end of pain,' And with a pained but triumphant look on his face, Hein brought his right palm up to his left, intent on sucking the spirit out of the flower, and destroying Sid's plan once and for all. She would be proud of him, finally.

.

His hands never touched; there was a sound like crystals tumbling over each other and he found that his wrists were encased in a block of ice, holding them apart from each other. He looked up and snarled; the female soldier was already preparing another spell, Edwards was closing the distance between them and Ross was fumbling with an unfamiliar piece of machinery. The scrawny soldier was nowhere to be seen, but Hein couldn't let that trouble him. He snapped up a quick shield, before focusing his sudden anger on the bonds around his wrists. The trick was to free himself without setting himself on fire; a difficult task at the best of times, but worse now that he was under attack.

_(We shall help you._)

.

Gray was so busy concentrating on closing the ground between himself and the bound general that he almost didn't notice the inhuman hiss coming from one of the ruined buildings beside him. He span around and held his sword up in defence, just in time to stop a set of phantom tentacles from sinking into his chest. His eyes narrowed reflexively behind his helmet, but he had no chance to question what was going on. He immediately put himself between the Phantom and Aki, hoping to God that this was the only one.

'Captain!' The yell from Jane told him all he needed to know, and he swore under his breath and he began to move back towards Aki. He could see more now climbing up from underground; he had known that the news of their disappearance back to the Leonid crater had been too good to be true.

'Form up, protect Aki,' he ordered through the comm. There was a soft buzz from above; what he hoped was the Black Boa and Sid coming to rescue them. But he couldn't think about that now; a quick glance back at Hein showed that the general had melted the ice cuffs that Jane had trapped him in and he was now advancing on the small group with a disconcertingly calm expression on his face.

'You keep on trying to escape, again and again,' There was a faint trace of humour to Hein's voice, but nothing else. Gray felt a shiver run down his spine, despite his training. 'You're so stubborn, all of you. Terra offers you peace, and all you want is pain,' The groups found themselves trapped in a corner, nothing but sheer dark walls behind them, and a horde of Phantoms before them. Strangely though, the Phantoms weren't attacking; they had stopped close enough for the soldiers to have nowhere to go, but far enough away that Gray couldn't reach them without moving forward a few steps himself. Hein had stopped just at the head of the Phantom group, his eyes still on Aki.

'What's Terra?' Aki asked, despite herself. Hein laughed, a short, sharp bark of derision that never seemed to sound amused.

'All the answers are available to you,' he said, tapping his head. 'But you don't listen. You don't listen to anything even resembling sense,'

'You're not exactly in a position to lecture about sense,' Aki shot back. Gray let his grip on his sword tighten as he saw the sudden flicker of anger on Hein's face. Where was Sid, or Neil, for that matter? 'They _murdered_ your family, general, right here, in this city!' The flicker returned, a little longer and a little stronger this time. The aura around Hein was fading, and even the Phantoms were looking a little weak.

'They weren't murdered, they found peace,' he murmured, though he didn't sound too sure about it. Aki let herself snort, her eyes flicking up momentarily. Gray followed her gaze, noticing Neil on the roof of the building on the other side of the clearing. He was messing with some device, but he gave a brief thumbs-up to them. Gray let himself smile under the helmet. _Trust Neil,_

'Do you really believe that?' Aki's voice was harsh; she was remembering something Elliot had told her in the brief time she'd been able to talk to him after Zeus. He had mentioned that he'd been able to snap Hein out of whatever kind of state of mind he was in, though only for a moment. That moment might be all the time they needed to turn this back to their advantage. 'You've felt it, general. You know what it feels like to have your spirit ripped from you,' He wasn't looking at anyone now; his eyes were on the ground in front of him, fists tightening.

'Shut up,' he whispered. The Phantoms still hadn't moved; they had even started fading slightly. It wasn't the same kind of invisibility that Gray usually associated with the Phantoms; it was really like they were disappearing.

'Do you really think that leads to _peace_? Do you really think that their lives ended in peace?'

'Shut up,' Hein said, a little louder this time. Aki ignored him and took a tiny step forward.

'Your family died in pain and in fear and completely alone. They were murdered by something they couldn't even see; and now you're helping their murderers to kill everyone else on the planet,' Gray flicked his eyes up again; Neil had disappeared once more, but he could just see the device he had left behind glittering in the weak sunlight.

'Shut up!' Hein thundered, looking up now with fire in his eyes. 'You know nothing! You haven't seen them, spoken to them, felt them!' Gray saw a tiny shimmer of something in front of him, but didn't have time to react as Aki shook her head and yelled;

'And neither have you!' Hein let out something closer to an animal yell than a human one and all of a sudden, the whole world seemed to be on fire. Jane was working on building some kind of ice barrier around them, but Gray didn't think it would help to stop the massive wall of fire approaching them. He could do nothing more than hold his breath and hope that fortune was smiling upon him today.

.

The searing pain of fire never reached him, however, and he opened his eyes just in time to see the wall of flame disappear a few feet in front of them, not even reaching the ice barrier Jane had made.

'We'll have to move quickly,' Aki said, her hand held out in front of her. 'I'm not sure I can make anything to withstand an attack like that anymore. We have to disable him or hurt him or something before he can summon the energy to do that again,' Gray shook his head slightly, gesturing to the space around Hein.

'The Phantoms,' Aki smiled ever so slightly, shaking her head.

'Look again,' He glanced back, and was shocked to notice that nothing else was registering on his scanners. The Phantoms had all gone. 'I think he caught them with his attack,' Gray grinned, altering his grip on his sword.

'Watch my back,'

.

Hein couldn't even hear the voice in his head as he surged forwards to meet the soldier head-on. He couldn't focus on anything except the pain and the anger that were coursing through him. He knew he had lost the guards that she had sent for him, and he could vaguely feel her shouting at him to stop, but he couldn't. He had to destroy the spirits and he had to make Aki take back every horrible spiteful word she had said. But most of all, he had to wipe away the memory that for one tiny moment, he knew she was right.

He dodged the first powerful slice from the sword, and countered with a sudden burst of ice that knocked the soldier back into the far wall of the courtyard, his sword clattering uselessly to one side. The next attack came from the mage; a searing ball of fire that threatened to burn him from even far away. She looked almost dismayed to see it splutter out harmlessly on his shield; she certainly didn't expect the counterattack he threw at her, a sudden gust of wind throwing her violently up into the air. He didn't wait for the thud as she hit the ground; his attention was focused on Aki. She had backed up against the wall, her expression defiant but her eyes so full of the fear he knew was there.

'You will not escape this time,' he hissed. To her credit, she didn't even look away, not even when he raised his arm to end this; once and for all.

He never quite got to her spirit; a sudden piercing pain in his back made him whirl around in pain. The third soldier was there, his gun smoking from the shot he had fired off, an active portable console discarded at his side. Hein snarled, Aki forgotten for the moment, and advanced on the soldier.

Suddenly there was nothing but pain. He felt himself fall to his knees, his hands flying to his head as his world exploded with agony. He tried to fire out some kind of spell; anything that could break whatever had suddenly trapped him, but nothing worked. He could barely hear her in the back of his head, her voice straining to reach him through the pain.

.

Aki let herself breathe again as Hein hit the floor, screaming in pain. Neil had jogged over to where Gray was picking himself up off the ground, wobbling a little woozily as he picked up his sword.

'Not what I was imagining, Neil,' he murmured, eyeing Hein. There were several yellow beams of light pointing down from various buildings around the clearing, all converging on Hein, who was now trapped in a sort of cage of bright, almost white light. Neil gave a tiny shrug, moving to help Jane up.

'God, that's a new one. I've never been taken out by _wind_ before,' she muttered, hand to her head.

'I know you said explosives, sir, but I did some math and I figured that this would be a safer way for us to keep him occupied until we escape. Speaking of which,' He glanced up at the sky. 'Dr Sid on his way?'

'I'm thirty seconds away,' Sid said over the radio. 'The ship's autopilot took me outside the city borders when the Phantoms appeared,' Neil nodded slowly, glancing down at the console in his hand.

'Well, here's hoping you get here quick, cause that might not last much longer,' Already one of the beams had cut out, though Hein still hadn't stopped screaming.

'What did you do?' Aki asked, her gaze alternating between the fallen general and the sky. She could feel his pain in the back of her mind; if she let herself close her eyes for too long, she had a feeling she would be sucked right into that nightmare with him. Neil shrugged, tapping the console.

'Took some ovapacks, did some jiggery pokery. From what you told me about Zeus, he seems pretty immune to normal bioetheric weapons, but not to the more specialised kinds. I souped up some regular packs to give out the same energy signature as the captain's sword here, put them in _brilliant_ places, if I do say so myself, so they all converged on him _et voila_; one trapped screaming psycho,' Jane raised an eyebrow.

'I'm impressed,' Neil beamed.

'So am I,'

Another beam had cut out before they heard the welcome sound of the Black Boa's engines overhead, and the penultimate beam had started to fade as the tow ropes lowered. Hein's cries had lowered to nothing more than a pained gasp, and though he had dragged himself to his feet and turned towards them, Aki could see that whatever the energy had done to him, it was going to take a while before he recovered.

They were all taken by surprise when he leapt forwards, out of the last beam before it cut, and grabbed at the first ankle he could reach, pulling the soldier down to the ground with him and practically throwing them to the ground.

'Neil!' Jane cried, letting go of her rope and leaping down after him.

'Not this time, not this time,' Hein hissed, his right hand clamped around Neil's neck, already the brilliant blue edges of the thief's spirit coming through.

No-one expected an explosion, least of all Hein, who was sent flying back to crunch sickeningly into a wall. He slumped to the ground and lay still, but all focus by then had turned to Neil, who was writhing on the floor and gasping for breath.


End file.
